


Wicked Game

by MysticalAuthoress



Series: Fate Brings Us Together [5]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Camelot, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Cavemen, Character Death, Dinosaurs, Djinni & Genies, Egypt, Escape the Night Season 1 Spoilers, Escape the Night Season 2 Spoilers, Escape the Night Season 4, Escape the Night Season 4 Spoilers, Escape the Night Spoilers, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Minotaur - Freeform, Non-Canonical Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pirates, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, instances of PTSD will probably happen, takes place during season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2020-10-05 16:24:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 28
Words: 51,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20491760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysticalAuthoress/pseuds/MysticalAuthoress
Summary: The Helpers go on a mission to help rescue some of Joey’s friends from the Museum of the Dead, but it goes wrong quickly, turning into a mission for both escape and survival. On top of that, old allies and enemies return, and it’s unclear who they should trust. Will everyone make it out alive, like they did in Everlock? Or will things take a turn for the worse this time?





	1. A Portal Gone Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> Author note: I do NOT own Escape The Night, or else Vincent would be showing up more, Riley and Jetpack Girl would *officially* be a thing, and Jetpack Girl’s name would be Joanne while Mortimer and Calliope survive the events of Season 3. However, all of what I just mentioned *does* happen in this fanfic series. XD  
A few notes before we begin:  
1\. THANK YOU TO WHOEVER RECOMMENDED THIS SERIES ON THE ESCAPE THE NIGHT TV TROPES FANFIC REC PAGE! I previously was scrolling through the tropes pages in late August 2019 when I stumbled across this discovery, and I am deeply honoured that this series is featured on that page. Thank you for the love and support you’ve given to the series so far!
> 
> 2\. This fic takes place post-“Here We Go Again,” which was a canon-divergent take on Season 3 where all the guests survive because Vincent, Jetpack Girl and Riley were there to help Mortimer and Calliope save them, which also resulted in Calliope and Mortimer staying alive! I would recommend reading all of “Here We Go Again” first before this fic, mainly because it’ll set up the context for this fic as well as the already-established pairings. I also recommend “Kindred” to read first, in case you don’t know who Dylan is (the son of Atticus) or why he’s with our helpers in the fic. “Never Be The Same” is also a fic that I recommend reading, mainly because it talks a bit in advance for the Season 4-related stuff (though it’s slightly divergent given that it was posted prior to the actual Season 4 airing and so some things are inaccurate).
> 
> 3\. All the guests at the Museum of the Dead are the same except for Colleen and Rosanna, given that they survived the events of “Here We Go Again” and therefore will not be guests in this fic. Who do I bring in instead? You’ll have to read on and find out yourselves! I hope you all enjoy reading this fic!
> 
> 4\. There will also be additional characters that weren’t featured in All-Stars coming from past seasons. Again, you will have to read and see who shows up. XD
> 
> I hope you all enjoy reading this new fic in the series as much as I enjoy writing it!

Here they are.

They’re going into Purgatory, to the Museum of the Dead, and rescue those already dead.

Mortimer never thought it was possible, but then again he also did the following during the past while:

  1. Saved Everlock and ten unsuspecting guests from the Carnival Master with the help of Jetpack Girl, Riley and Vincent.
  2. Fell in love with Vincent Wells in one night, which happened during the events of 1.
  3. Recently became one of seven legal guardians to a teenager that lived in the woods.

Yeah, he’s pretty sure he should’ve expected things to get weird.

They’re waiting in a forest area, isolated enough so that no one will stumble upon them at random. Matpat and Nikita, two of the ten survivors from Everlock that they helped save, are with them. They joined up with the Society Against Evil. Nikita sports a crop-top and skirt that Matpat apparently recognizes as something from whatever “Sucker Punch” is, and Matpat has a Society Against Evil-themed leather jacket on.

Mortimer recalls overhearing Jael and Ryu trying to argue against it for the safety of the two. Matpat does have a family at home and also would cancel a livestream for this, and Nikita has her own life to attend to, too. However, both were more than determined to save their past-deceased friends, and the helpers had no choice but to_ let_ them help them.

Joey drives over in his van. He’s wearing a brown leather coat that also is from the Society Against Evil (Mortimer guesses that the SAE has _many_ of these jackets on hand for their members), (decorative) spectacles, and getup that makes him look like an adventurer from those comics Mortimer used to read back in Everlock.

“You guys get what I ask for?” Joey asked.

Matpat nods, a grin on his face as he holds up the Crown of Oblivion. “Yeah. What took you so long?”

“Uh,” Nikita looks suddenly sheepish, still holding the Carnival Master’s Crystal in one hand, “Is this a bad time to tell you that I invited someone to the party?”

Mortimer stared. _What? Who?_ Surely it can’t be Tyler Oakley or Andrea Russett, nor Oli White and Eva Gutowski. Oli was too far from this location to make it, Eva had no interest getting stuck in Purgatory, and Tyler and Andrea respectively also declined, wishing to stay safe and at home. Mortimer didn’t blame them. If he were in the survivors’ shoes, he probably would’ve stayed home, too.

“The party’s _here~!”_ Approaching them is a young man with tan skin and perfectly done-up makeup (the makeup reminds Jetpack Girl of Manny for a moment, given how Manny was a makeup guru) donning a yellow jacket, some black pants and heeled shoes. Also holding a baseball bat as a weapon, too.

“Nikita,” Joey groaned, looking to Nikita, “I _told_ you not to invite anyone. This is a dangerous mission!”

“The only _dangerous _thing here,” The newbie snipes back with pure confidence, gesturing to himself, “Is _this_ fat ass.”

The newcomer (Bretman Rock, he introduces himself) looks like some kind of playboy in that yellow jacket and black pants and heeled shoes, so Mortimer nicknames him the Playboy in his head. He has a feeling he’s going to learn many names tonight, forget those names, and then try to scramble to remember all the names. They are saving _numerous dead people_, after all.

Jael breaks down the situation: Joey, Bretman, Vincent, Jetpack Girl, Mortimer, Calliope and Riley will infiltrate one section of the museum, where all the deceased Youtubers are. Jael, Nikita, Dylan and Ryu will head to the other section to cause any distractions and/or help needed to keep the guests safe from the monsters in the Museum. Both teams would ultimately find the guests, get them out of there, and avoid the Collector at all costs. Seems like an easy job, at least in word. Probably not that easy, when applied in reality, but Mortimer liked to hope for the best.

“Doesn’t it seem a bit uneven to have one giant team on one side and a smaller one on the other?” Jetpack Girl pointed out.

Jael sighed. “It’s to make sure all your friends get out safely. There are at least ten of them in there, after all. The rest of us will be a distraction to whatever dangers are present, in the meantime.”

“Meaning _we_ get to kick some ass.” Nikita looks thrilled as she says it, and Jetpack Girl is more than sure that the Troublemaker was not called the Troublemaker for nothing (and she’s pretty sure it goes beyond Everlock at this point).

“What about me?” Matpat protests, face falling as he realizes he wasn’t included in Jael’s stated plans. “I _did _cancel my livestream for this.”

Jael sighed as she looked towards him. “You’ll be with me. Baby steps.”

_Smart choice,_ Mortimer thinks. Matpat does have a wife and child at home to worry about after this, and they didn’t want him getting in harm’s way. Jael was one of the more seasoned combat experts, and Matpat wasn’t exactly great at physical strength (though he was very intelligent), so that made sense.

With that settled, Jael and Ryu prepare the spell with the cursed artifacts, the crown, and the crystal. Calliope also joins in, the golden glow of their magic activating the mansion’s Cursed Artifacts, the Carnival Master’s Crystal, and the Sorceress’ Crown of Oblivion.

A portal opens.

“Go!”

* * *

Dylan is sure that this will turn out okay. Five of the seven legal guardians he has, Calliope included, are going in first to make sure they get to the guests. Jael, Ryu, Matpat and Nikita (both who he’s never met, but seem nice) are going with Dylan next afterwards.

“The Crown is breaking!” Ryu calls out suddenly, and Dylan freezes for a moment. Sure, the Crown had limited power to keep the portal open, but…how long will it last?

His answer is given when the portal suddenly closes behind Calliope, Vincent, Jetpack Girl, Riley, Mortimer, Joey, and Bretman, _just _before Matpat and Nikita even have a chance to run in next.

Matpat’s the first to look towards Jael and Ryu, instantly screaming frustration on his face before he even expresses it aloud. “What happened to the portal!?”

“The Crown’s broken.” Ryu points out, and Dylan is pretty sure that the other has worry in his otherwise-calm tone. “None of the rest of us can get in…”

“What?” Nikita looks towards the portal, and for once, Dylan sees worry in her own eyes. “Damn it, I _promised_ Bretman I wouldn’t leave him alone in there!”

Dylan remembers being told, once, that Nikita had a friend named Manny who was stuck in Everlock with her. That Manny and Nikita were fire-forged friends, and Manny _almost _had to die at her hands during a death challenge if not for the intervention of the Helpers. No wonder she’s worried. She and Bretman must be close, too.

“There’s a chance for us to get in, still.” Jael tried to reassure her. “The Guardian Angel stone exists in Purgatory, and if Joey and the others find it…”

Dylan gives Jael a look of his own. “And you didn’t tell us this _before_ everyone else went in the portal?” _Why? Why didn’t you?_ Dylan trusts Jael as one of his seven legal guardians (though he’s let the words “mom” and “dad” slip a few times), but he hates that sometimes, some people neglect to give useful information at good times.

“We were sure the Crown would be stable enough for all of us to go through.” Jael swallows, and it dawns on Dylan that she’s just as worried as everyone else about the others now in Purgatory. “They’ve survived a mission like this once. They can do it again.”

“I hope so,” Is all Ryu can say, and Dylan can only hope that his five other guardians/parental-figures will be okay.

_Please make it out okay. _

He couldn’t bear the thought of losing more parental figures. Not after what happened with his Pa.

* * *

The portal closes behind Calliope, and she swallows. That can’t be good.

“Was that supposed to happen?” Mortimer asks.

Calliope looks towards him and shakes her head. “Not as soon as now, no.”

“What happened?” Bretman’s face is utter confusion as he looks towards where the portal is.

“I don’t know.” Joey looks just as nervous. “It’s _supposed_ to stay open.”

Bretman’s jaw drops. “Does that mean we’re stuck here!?”

Calliope is the first to assuage Bretman’s worries, knowing that this young man is inexperienced in this sort of thing. She’s no Nikita, she knows that, but she knows that panicking now won’t help in their mission. “I’m sure Jael, Ryu and the others are working on it. Let’s just get to your friends, first.”

“Let’s just focus on the mission, come on!” Joey calls, and the group heads towards the Museum. Thankfully, it doesn’t take them long to get through the complicated foliage and towards the Museum entrance. Out walks the Collector, and everyone hides from sight.

The Collector, Calliope notes, looks _powerful._ She exudes it in every step, full of grace but clearly ready to stab someone with that spear of hers, given the deep focus in her expression. There’s a woman with snakes for hair with her, too, and there are several guards, dressed like the ones you’d see in the paintings of Egyptian soldiers.

Calliope is strangely sure that the snake-headed woman looks familiar to her, but she’s not sure how. At least, not right now.

“We are leaving on an expedition to find pieces for my new exhibit.” The Collector speaks to who is presumably the head guard. _“Keep careful watch.”_

The Collector opens her own portal, and she and the snake-headed woman head into the portal. It closes behind them, and the guards march away.

“We have to avoid her.” Joey whispers to Jetpack Girl.

“At least she’s gone for now.” Jetpack Girl whispers. “This is our chance to get everyone. Just avoid the guards.”

Calliope nodded as she looked towards Jetpack Girl. “I agree with her. We should go, now.”

She could only hope that nothing more went wrong.


	2. Old Faces, Renewed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party meets some old faces, but they look a little different than last time they saw them. Also, everyone gets in danger.

Vincent never thought he would see Lele again, but she’s the first person in the Youtuber Exhibit whose case he notices. To be fair, all the dead guests are in glass cases, _eight _to be precise, but out of all of them…her outfit is different, but her face is unmistakable. He approaches the glass, gazes up at her.

“Lele?” He breathes.

She doesn’t respond.

Lele’s not dressed in her get-up from the 1920s. Instead of being the Hustler that Vincent once knew her as, her new title is a _Socialite,_ dressed in a white coat with a fur trim, and there’s a blue dress with white polka dots peeking through where the coat isn’t buttoned and where the fur doesn’t cover.

Vincent tapped on the glass. Lele still did not respond. He _punched_ it, and received only pain as he doubled back, massaging his hand a bit.

“Vincent?! You okay?” Riley rushed to his side, but Vincent shook the pain away from his hand.

“I’m okay,” He managed, looking to her, and then looked towards the glass case holding Lele. The glass remained immaculate, not even cracked. “That’s her. She died to free me.”

He still feels bad about that. _But I’m not going to fail her. I’m going to save her this time._

Jetpack Girl points at another glass case nearby. “Who’s this?”

Joey turns to see, and grimaces. “That’s Matt…Matt Haag. He was there at the first party with Lele, Tim and Justine as well. Got poisoned.”

Matt Haag previously had the role of the Professor, Joey informs them. However, he doesn’t look like one right now. He’s given the role of _The Duke_ instead. He wears a blue suit, with a faded red shirt underneath. Much more colourful than his past outfit, for sure. But like Lele and the others in the glass cases, he’s also frozen in place, looking like he’s about to scold someone.

“There’s some kind of strange energy here.” Vincent hears Joey mutter. “Maybe it’s holding everyone captive? What do we do?”

“Sis…” Bretman looked around, disbelief in his eyes. “I don’t know.” It’s slowly starting to sink into the Playboy that things are going to get wild. Vincent doesn’t blame him for looking a tad overwhelmed, because he probably would feel the same in his shoes.

“There’s a strange energy here.” Joey looked around, then noticed the glowing crystal. “I have to break it.”

“But how?” Vincent asks, just as Joey picks up a large axe or hammer of sorts.

“I’m gonna try something, okay?”

“You sure about that?” Mortimer manages, but Joey’s already swinging the hammer.

Calliope’s eyes widen as Bretman yells, _“Joey!”_

* * *

The crystal breaks.

The glass cases break simultaneously, and all the people contained within them all react at once.

Justine Ezarik, the Adventurer, recoils in shock, and almost falls off her pedestal.

Matt Haag, the Duke, ducks and covers his head with both hands, flinching at the glass breaking.

Tim Delaghetto, the Con Man, shakes off the glass around him, trying not to get cut.

Lele Pons, the Socialite, looks around, awe and confusion in her gaze.

DeStorm Power, the Enforcer, brings up an arm to cover himself.

Tana Mongeau, the Pin-Up Girl, screams as the glass breaks, twisting about where she stands.

Gabbie Hanna, the Hollywood Star, does something similarly to DeStorm by trying to cover herself with her flare-sleeved arms.

Alex Wassabi, the Aviator, almost stumbles forward, but catches himself just in time before he can fall.

“Oh my god.” Riley hears Joey gasping. “It worked!”

It’s good to see all the guests outside their cases. Riley knows that it sucks being in one, given her century-long experience. But why does she have the feeling that things aren’t going to go so well, despite their new freedom?

* * *

All the guests immediately get in a confused frenzy.

Lele and Matt are the most confused out of the whole bunch, and Jetpack Girl isn’t sure what to do as each of the guests point each other out and realize that they’re all dead. Gabbie, the Vaudevillian-now-Hollywood Star, tries to rally them all together to understand what the hell is going on, but that only works for a few seconds before DeStorm and Alex notice each other and go “round two.” Jetpack Girl never met DeStorm before, but given the way he and Alex are staring at each other, it can’t be a very good bond they have between them.

Joey tries butting in, to explain the situation, but everyone puts the pieces together before he can summarize their current situation.

“So you died?” Gabbie asks Lele.

“Yeah.” Lele managed. She still looks stunned from everything going on.

“I died, too.” Matt interjects.

The Con Man can only nod in agreement. “Uh, yeah, we were invited to dinner…”

Justine nods, her face halfway through realization and disturbance. “Yeah, we were…at his party…”

“I killed both of you, remember?” Alex points out to Gabbie and DeStorm, who wraps an arm around Gabbie closely.

“That’s why we’re here,” Gabbie points out, “And you’re there.”

“See!?” Joey finally sums up. “It’s not all my fault! We all played a part in each other’s deaths!”

Bretman makes a face that seems to say: Joey killed all these bitches, am I next?

Jetpack Girl cleared her throat, and everyone looked towards her. “Look, I know you’re all dead, and you all are pissed at Joey, but he’s here with us to get all of you out of here. You can air all your grievances later, okay?”

“Who are you?” Matt looks the most skeptical out of the group. “Who are all of you from?”

“Vincent?” It’s Lele that steps towards Vincent, jaw dropping. “You’re here? Did you die?”

“Lele…” Vincent rushes over to her. “No, I didn’t die, I’m alive, I just…I’m just here to help you.”

“Wait, Lele,” Justine asks her, “Do you know him?”

“A couple hours after you died," Lele started, "me and the others met him.”

“I wasn’t here for this.” Matt pointed out. “I think I was dead already.”

“Me too.” Tim adds, and Lele scoffs at both men.

“He was stuck in a straitjacket, okay!? We had to get these keys to free him, and I…”

“Died?” Matt pointed out.

“Yeah. Does this prove I’m not working with the evil now, Matt!?”

Jetpack Girl is more than willing to restrain Matt and Lele from killing each other when they see guards. She realizes they look very similar when she saw the Collector ordering the guards to keep watch, and…well, crap.

They got caught.

What the hell do they do?

Before she can even call her fellow Helpers to start fighting, it’s Alex that punches one of the guards in the face. Both the guard and Alex wrestle and fight each other, ending up on the ground among the cries of the other guests, but Alex is caught.

And the whole group goes into panic.

This was not how it was supposed to go. They were supposed to stick together, get the hell out of here, and the next thing Jetpack Girl knows, she’s dragging Riley into the Museum building. Calliope is with them. Same with Joey, Tana, DeStorm, Tim, Gabbie and Bretman.

The rest, however? They’re captured. And Jetpack Girl can only hope that they’ll be okay.

* * *

Riley’s glad that Joanne dragged her out of that mess, but she has the bad feeling, as they look around the building filled with statues of dinosaurs, a stuffed lion, and other various things she’s never seen before, that something bad will happen.

_“Look what the cat dragged in!”_

She was right. Something bad _is _here.

Riley loses her voice in that second upon seeing the familiar golden hair like hers, yet wearing the dark makeup, that long v-neck in her dark dress. The gold flecks in the feathery shoulderpiece of the dress are enough for her to put it all together and see who it is, even before seeing the woman’s near-bloodthirsty eyes.

Jetpack Girl holds Riley’s hand, squeezing it once as she takes out her gun with the other hand.

“Everyone,” Jetpack Girl warned the guests, “Get behind me!”

Calliope also has a crowbar at the ready, silent but ready to fight.

The Sorceress looks to the three, laughs, and then Riley hears Joey groan, “Oh no, not the _Sorceress!”_

“Last time we met,” The Sorceress continued, brandishing a knife, “We _killed _each other.”

Riley heard Calliope curse under her breath, Jetpack Girl barely restraining a hiss of her own. Riley instinctively pushed Joey and the others behind her, taking out her own knife. “Don’t come any closer or I will kill you.” She spoke, daring to look the Sorceress in the eyes. She’s not sure where her boldness in her voice comes from, because her legs are shaking right now. “I-I’ve already done it once.”

The Sorceress gave her a shit-eating grin. “Shall we do it again?”

Riley swallowed. “How about _no?”_


	3. Welcome And Unwelcome Reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Many reunions happen. So does confusion. Some reunions are more welcome than others.

Matt, Lele, Justine and Alex all get captured along with Mortimer and Vincent.

Mortimer isn’t exactly sure where the guards are taking him, Vincent and the others, but he’s grateful that Calliope, Jetpack Girl and Riley managed to get away with the other guests. Lele curses up a storm, Matt awkwardly just lets the guards shepherd him into the fire cage pit area, and Mortimer just wishes he had better weapons on hand than a knife or two. Maybe a gun would’ve helped.

Then again, can one _shoot_ the Collector’s guards? He has no clue.

Looking around, he sees skulls, the small lit fire. And then he sees familiar dark hair like his own, the blazer with those pants and blouse…

He doesn’t have to see her full face to know who she is.

“Mom?”

The woman turns to face the group, and gasps. “Mortimer!?”

_“Mom!” _

It takes less than a second for Mortimer to pull his mom into a hug. He hears her break into a sob, and he rubs circles into her back as he keeps hugging her for a good long moment. The last time he saw her, he buried her dead body in the ground and stood at her grave. Now she’s here, and they’re hugging each other, and it’s going to be okay. He hopes, desperately, that things will be okay. He doesn’t want to lose his mom again.

“It’s okay,” He whispered, “It’s okay, I’m here, I’m not dead.”

“You’re still alive?” Janet Wilson, (former) mayor of Everlock and mother of one Mortimer Wilson, pulls back from him, puts a hand to his chest. Mortimer felt his own heartbeat hammer a bit, and a relieved sigh escapes her. “So the Carnival Master didn’t kill you, but…then, what are you doing here?”

“We’re on a rescue mission, Mom. To save a bunch of people.” He can’t leave his mom here, and he adds her to the list. “You, too.”

“Wait,” Justine manages, as she points at Janet, “That’s your mom?”

Mortimer looked towards Justine and the other guests, nodding. “Yeah. This is my mom, everyone.”

“Janet Wilson.” Mortimer’s mom introduces herself. “Please, call me Janet. Or Ms. Wilson.”

Mortimer thinks he hears Lele murmur “She looks _way_ too young to be your mom” but he decides to ignore it.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Matt looks super-confused at this point. “Who’s this Carnival Master? _What_ is going on with that?”

“Mom and I came from a town called Everlock.” Mortimer tries his best to explain. “Joey and his friends had to save the town from this evil person called the Carnival Master, and I helped defeat him. Vincent, Riley and Jetpack Girl also helped me, as well as Calliope…”

“And now you’re here?” Lele asked. “To save us and stuff?”

“Exactly.” Mortimer looked towards everyone. “I know we just met, and most of you don’t really know me, but me and my friends are here to get you out, and we’re going to do everything we can. But…we gotta get out of here first. Okay?”

* * *

The second person in the cage is a woman who wears all black, but her dark brown hair and wide eyes are recognizable enough to Vincent to remember a description of who she is. Jetpack Girl told him about her, once.

“Are you Alison?”

The woman looked towards him, staring. She seems startled, and it makes sense, given how they literally haven’t met in person before. “Well, yes, I am…who are you?”

_“Alison!”_ Alex cheers, face lighting up. “It’s you!”

Alison looks to Alex, a gasp escaping her as he hugs her briefly. She hugs him back, then pulls back to look him in the eyes. “Alex? Wait, did you…?”

“Yeah.” Alex’s face falls a bit, but he covers it up with a sheepish grin. “I kinda died.”

“Wait, wait,” It’s Lele that’s confused, pointing, “Who is _she?”_

“This is Alison. She’s the one that helped me and my friends at the party I went to,” Alex explained quickly, looking to Matt, Lele and Justine (all three from the first party are completely confused, and Vincent doesn’t blame them for feeling such a way right now). “She even sacrificed herself to save us during one of the death challenges. She’s good, guys. She’s with us.”

“She sacrificed herself?” Lele repeated, staring. Matt looks a _tad_ uncomfortable at the mention of self-sacrifice, and Justine slowly nods as she lets it sink in.

“Yeah. I did.” Alison cleared her throat, looked around. “I sensed a strange energy through this museum, just earlier. Next thing I know, I was out of my exhibit.”

“That’s what I heard Joey mention before he smashed a crystal thing freeing the others.” Mortimer pointed out.

“This woman, The Collector,” Janet started, swallowing, “She stuffed me and Alison in here…”

“How?”

“We ran into each other, and we were trying to find a way out.” Alison managed. She recalls only a while ago when she ran into the mayor of Everlock, terrified and out of her wits. “The Collector and those guards got us, though. And there was one other man…”

Mortimer stared. “One other man?”

“Yes.” A familiar, male voice spoke, and a man stepped over to the group. He must’ve been at the other side of the fire pit cage earlier, but Mortimer saw the shock come into Vincent’s eyes at seeing this man. He had red hair, dressed kind of like a butler in that vest, jacket and white shirt…but his gaze was almost cold, as he spoke. “As much as I appreciate the warm reunions, can we _please _work on getting out of here?”

* * *

Vincent turned to see him. One thing came to mind for him to say to him, and it was this:

“You _son of a bitch.”_

“What?” Vincent heard Mortimer say, but Vincent felt only rage as he rushed himself at Arthur, grabbing the man by the collar and punching him in the face. A hiss escaped Arthur, who tried to grab at Vincent, but Vincent was physically stronger out of the two, pushing him right up against the cage bars.

“Wait, wait, stop!” Mortimer pulled Vincent away from the third individual, looking towards him and then to the other man. “Do you know him!?”

“Arthur?” Justine gasped, and Vincent tried to push past Mortimer to get to Arthur, to tear the man apart where he stood. “He helped us—”

_“He_ was the one with the evil!” The former madman snapped, glaring daggers at the former butler. _“He_ _locked me in a fucking straitjacket in that house!”_

Lele looks to Vincent, and then to Arthur, suspicion forming in her expression as Matt lets out a “What!?” of shock.

Arthur keeps his gaze on Vincent, surprisingly calm despite the other’s attempt of harming him. “I didn’t think I’d see you here.” He stated. “Did you die upon leaving?”

“I didn’t come to rescue _you.”_ Vincent snapped, before Mortimer looked between them, clearing his own throat.

“Look, I know you guys…don’t have great history.” Mortimer finally managed after a moment. “But none of us are getting out of here unless we work together. So how about we do that?”

Vincent looked towards Mortimer, and Mortimer saw the concern in his gaze. He didn’t blame him for not trusting Arthur, given what he knew of him. But he knew that Mortimer was right. They had to work together, for now. “Fine.”

Arthur could only nod. “At least one of us sees reason in here. I’ll work with you.” He states.

And with that, the group immediately looks for clues on how to get out. Mortimer tries picking the lock, Vincent points out numbers on the ground, but no one is still sure how all this works. Vincent can only hope that he doesn’t have to strangle Arthur the entire time.

It’s one thing to work with someone you don’t like, but it’s another when you’re working with a man who kept you prisoner for who-knows-how-long.

* * *

“You…come here.” The Sorceress gestures with a finger towards Joey.

“I can’t believe you’re back.” Joey muttered. His voice sounded dull, and Calliope knows that it can’t be good for him seeing his own killer again.

“Why does she seem so familiar?” Tana asks.

Gabbie groans. “That’s because she killed you, me _and _DeStorm, remember?”

DeStorm looked visibly shocked at exactly how many people the Sorceress killed. “Did she take out Alex, too?” Gabbie stares at him. DeStorm shrugs. “You tell me, I was _dead.”_

Jetpack Girl nodded in response to DeStorm’s question. “Technically, she did.”

_“Damn.”_

“Joey,” The Sorceress starts, sounding a bit exasperated that the others lost attention from her, “I don’t know how you did it, but the exhibits are now _loose._ And the monsters inside them are _not_ kind.”

“And…why are you telling us this?” Jetpack Girl can’t help but ask. Why _is_ the Sorceress trying to be helpful right now, anyway?

The Sorceress huffs. “I would use my magic, but I don’t have my _staff,_ okay?”

“So you’re just as vulnerable as the rest of us.” DeStorm immediately points out, and Calliope notices Riley relax slightly. Calliope remembers how Riley told her, once, that she killed the Sorceress after the Sorceress was already weakened. Obviously, without the Sorceress’ magic…she’s not as strong as she was, even if she’s stuck in here like everyone else. She can’t do anything right now. Not without them.

Calliope is also more than sure that she can beat the Sorceress’ ass in a fist fight right now, so they’re probably okay if they have to work with her, even if they hate her right now. She’ll just make sure to watch the Sorceress closely in case she starts trying to stab people.

“So,” Gabbie asks, “Are you on our side now?”

The Sorceress does not look happy. “For now, yes.”

“Then put your dagger away.” DeStorm points out, just as Tana groans, “Why are you being so _pissy _about it?”

Calliope glares at the Sorceress’ protesting hiss, but she’s relieved that the other woman complies with the demand. “I have my eye on you.”

“As I do on you,” The Sorceress hisses back at Calliope, and Calliope has a feeling that they’re not going to stop glaring at each other too soon.

* * *

The Sorceress wants nothing to do with any of these people, honestly. She just wants to take the museum for herself. But…there’s not a lot she can do without magic other than stabbing people, and she knows that too well. It’s annoying, but she’ll work with them.

For _now._

“The Collector left this in the study where I was kept.” She presents the token she found, when she first was freed. “It is all I know.”

She extends it to Joey for him to examine. Joey looks down at the item in her hand, then up at her.

“The last time you killed me, so…” But Joey takes a step closer, despite his hesitation. He reaches for what the Sorceress has in her hand, only for her to lightly tug it away. She smirks, almost teasing, but then lets him have it.

They make their way into a lounge area, only for Joey to point out a painting. “That’s her! That’s the Collector!”

“Whaaat?” Tim gasps. “Damn, she’s fine!”

The Sorceress sees the self-portrait of the Collector, and hisses. “That pretentious bitch.”

Joey gives her a look. “Excuse me, but you have the same thing back in your mansion!”

“Isn’t she a copycat?” The Collector _must_ be. Why else would she do this?

“She wanna be you _so _bad.” Bretman comments, and The Sorceress nods in approval. He gets it. He gets her. He’s not as annoying as the others, too, so she can tolerate him.

The ‘good’ half of her points out a demon-like statue. “What’s that?”

Joey puts the gear into the little slot Bretman points out on said statue, and…

The clock breaks. A note is revealed.

_“When the Armageddon Clock strikes the morning hour, all those outside their exhibit are **burned to ash** and sent to a final death in **Hell.”**_

Well, shit.

“That’s the museum’s self-defense system.” The Sorceress points out to the group. She takes a closer look at the note, and notices the symbol. She knows she’s seen it before.

Maybe it would help control the guards?

There’s only one way to figure that out.

Gabbie, Joey, and Bretman split from the group with Riley to save the others. Jetpack Girl and Calliope both stick with the Sorceress, Tim, Tana and DeStorm. The Sorceress watches her other half wander off with the three guests, wondering if they will make it back or get stupidly captured.

* * *

Alison isn’t sure if they’re really getting anywhere. They’re still stuck in the pit cage, they don’t have keys to get out of here, and then…

Matt finds a journal. It details more on the Collector’s schemes, but before the group has a chance to fully read it, Alison sees Joey appear at the cell, along with Gabbie, a boy she’s never seen before wearing a yellow jacket (his name is Bretman, Alison soon finds out), and a blonde woman who introduces herself as Riley.

Joey is shocked to see Alison down here, as well as Mayor Janet and Arthur.

“Guys?” Joey keeps his voice low, looking towards most of the group while Arthur isn’t looking, “Don’t trust Arthur.”

“Arthur?” Justine repeats. “Vincent told us that Arthur locked him up in the house where we had that dinner party.”

“He was working with the evil.” Joey adds. “You don’t want to trust him.”

“On the contrary,” Arthur interrupts, “I know things about the Collector that the rest of you don’t know. I was kept in her study when I finally broke free.”

“So you know how to get out of here?” Tim asks.

“If you work with me, I can certainly help you with that.” Arthur states, looking the Con Man in the eye. “I don’t want to be an exhibit for eternity. Neither do the rest of you, I presume?”

Alison clears her throat, and as soon as Arthur looks her in the eyes, she bares her fangs to him. “If you lay a harmful hand on even a _hair _on their heads, I will rip you apart. Do _you_ understand?”

Much to her satisfaction, she seems him genuinely flinch. “Understood.”

And with that, the group starts finding a way out. They match up the numbers to the shapes described in the journal, and find another egg. Turns out said egg is one of five eyes that Joey’s little group has to place somewhere, and so they hand the eyes over to them to use.

* * *

While they’re still stuck in the cage, Mortimer sighs. He _has_ to break it to his mom that he isn’t single anymore, and he’s not sure if they’ll get a better time later tonight. Best to get it over with while they can. He gently asks Vincent if that’s okay to do right now, Vincent says yes, and Mortimer steels himself to tell the truth to his mom.

“Hey, Mom?” Mortimer starts, looking towards Janet.

Janet looks towards her son, blinking. “Yes?”

“Uh….” Mortimer looked towards Vincent, jerking a thumb towards him. “Just so you know, Vincent is my boyfriend.”

_“What?”_

Vincent meekly waves at Janet. Alison looks amused at the prospect of having a ‘meet the parents’ moment in _Purgatory_ of all places.

Mortimer grins back at Vincent, before explaining to his mom. “We met in Everlock when he, Jetpack Girl and Riley arrived. Been together since.”

Janet looked towards Vincent, and then towards Mortimer once more. “How long have you two…been together?”

“A year? Almost a year?” Mortimer scratches the back of his head. “He’s good, Mom. I promise. Literally saved my life several times.”

Mortimer sees Vincent blush. “You saved mine, too.”

“Well…” Janet pauses, then smiles softly at her son. “I’m really happy for you, Mortimer. You and him both. And Vincent?”

Vincent’s gaze meets Janet. “Yes…Ms. Wilson?”

Janet chuckles. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Some of the guests let out “awwwsss” at witnessing this moment. Mortimer is just glad that, despite everything going on, _something_ is going right.

* * *

Calliope decides to stick with Tana, Tim, DeStorm and the Sorceress. Riley and Jetpack Girl go with Joey, Bretman, and Gabbie to free their friends. Calliope decides that it’s best that the Sorceress and Riley have as little interactions as possible, or else the Sorceress might attempt murdering Riley as payback for Riley previously killing her.

It seems to work so far. They’re focused on figuring out the clues, finding the little statues, and they get the rod after some amount of figuring out things. Tana, in particular, finds out many of the clues, and Calliope is more than sure that her intelligence will help them in many more puzzles to come. Jetpack Girl and the Sorceress keep an eye out for any Egyptian guards. Thankfully, there’s only one guard to keep watch for, as the rest are likely outside guarding their imprisoned friends.

“Calliope?” She looked towards Jetpack Girl, who frowned. “You okay? You looked kinda shaken when you saw that snake-headed lady.”

“I’m fine.” She managed. “She just…” She shook her head. “She looks familiar. I can’t put my finger on where, but I feel like I’ve seen her before.”

Jetpack Girl looked on the verge of jaw-dropping. “Was she a Society Against Evil member?”

“I can’t remember. But I feel like I knew her.” Calliope knew her intuition was usually right when it came to things like this. It helped her survive Everlock, and if trusting her gut would help her and the others out in Purgatory, she’d definitely use it to her advantage.

They soon get the Ruler’s Rod, and they forget about the Gorgon for now.

* * *

Gabbie gets captured by a guard. Riley used a slingshot she had on hand, trying to hit the guard, but it missed the guard’s head by a few inches. Gabbie’s thrown into the fire pit prison, and Riley knows that she has to protect Bretman and Joey. Next time someone gets captured, it’s _her_, not either of those two.

They find most of the eyes, but then are missing two eyes.

“There’s stairs leading down.” Bretman points out. Riley rushes down, finds the eye, and rushes back to rejoin him and Joey. They soon find the last eye, putting it in place, and then a box opens.

There are keys to the jail, and a bird-shaped item. Quickly and quietly, they free their friends and book it inside the building. Riley makes sure none of the guards catch the guests or herself on the way inside, but also takes the time to catch up with the guards.

“So you’re Mortimer’s mom?” Riley asks Janet.

The darker-brunette nodded, swallowing. “I am. It’s…nice to meet you.” She shudders, before looking around again in case of guards. “You’re a friend of his?”

“I’m Riley.” She offers her a soft smile. “Nice to meet you.”

“Call me Janet,” The other supplies, just before Alison calls to them to hurry up and get into the building, lest more guards come their way. Riley’s pretty sure that she can make a new friend out of Janet. Riley’s already friends with Mortimer anyway, Janet seems to trust her, and trust is always a good stepping stone on the way to a great friendship.

Hopefully, that friendship can survive beyond tonight.

* * *

Arthur is more than sure that they’ll get caught by guards again, given the various dialogues everyone else has around him. All the guests are in a frenzy, asking each other about who all the Helpers are. Arthur and Vincent exchange quiet glares from across the room, and the former butler mentally notes overhearing how the Sorceress killed all the people he never met before (namely, Gabbie, DeStorm, Alex and Tana. Those are new names to him). Also, Alison is new to him, and same with all these other people; Mortimer, Jetpack Girl (who names themselves Jetpack Girl?) and Riley. Oh, and that one called Bretman too. He has no idea who that one is, but that yellow jacket he wears is _hideous. _

“What do you know about the Collector?” The woman named “Jetpack Girl” but also called “Joanne” asks him, and Arthur knows he has to fess up.

“She said, when she was capturing me, Miss Alison, and Miss Janet, she was leaving on an expedition to get more artifacts. From where she’s getting them, I don’t know.” And it’s true. That’s all he really knows.

The group knows they have to get out of here. _He’d_ like to get out of here. They asses their finds:

“I have a stick.” Tim holds up a rod.

Alex hands out his item. “I have a box.”

Joey presents his item with a flourish. “And I have a _gorgeous_ bird!”

Arthur isn’t quite sure if this is really helping them. However, Justine’s suggestion of attaching the stick to the bird does work, and it creates the Ruler’s Rod. Joey decides it’s a wonderful idea to go up to the guards and try commanding them with the Rod.

The former butler isn’t sure if Joey is a great risk-taker, or a _horrible_ decision-maker. Maybe he’s both, for all he knows. Probably the latter, given all the dead people here that died because of Joey.

By the time they get out there to command the guards, however, looks like the stick that lights up actually does work. Brilliant. He’s not sure what ‘dabbing’ is when one of the guests suggests to Joey to make the guards do it, but Joey is instead about to command the guards to go into the cage instead.

Joey is about to command the guards to go into the prison, Arthur sees something around the head guards’ neck. “What’s that key doing there?”

Joey takes it, before the guards go into the prison and the door is locked behind them. Maybe by being somewhat helpful, the group will trust Arthur just enough for Vincent to not tear him apart. As they’re heading inside the building, however, Arthur realizes the Sorceress is not with them. Did she duck out on her own?

He’s mistaken, as he turns to see the Sorceress stab the head guard.

“This Museum should be _mine!” _

The Sorceress pulls out her dagger, and the guard falls. Arthur quickly steps into the building to avoid her seeing him. She might’ve seen him. He hoped she didn’t.


	4. Good News, Bad News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Helpers and guests experience a variety of good and bad news, as they investigate the sands of Egypt.

Good news: They found out more about how to get out of this damned museum! They need a Cosmic Sphere, hidden in the Collector’s Vault that needs nine keys to unlock. At least they know what to do now.

Bad news: Death challenges are apparently also a thing in _this_ world, too. The warning of “a final death with no return” does not sound good at all.

Alison wants to beat her head against a wall. She couldn’t bear the thought of more death challenges. Heck, one of them got herself killed (even if it was to save Andrea Russett), and she’d rather not die a second time.

Also, the Sorceress, the woman who trapped Riley in a glass box for a century, was a Helper. How much could he trust her in that role? Why even work with all of them in the first place? Alison was more than sure that she and her were enemies. There had to be something up with her. No way would the Sorceress work with them purely to get out of here, right?

* * *

Good news: They found a way into the Egyptian Exhibit, due to the key around the guard’s neck being a way in there. Good for DeStorm for pointing out that door.

Bad news: They woke up the Mummy, the Pharaoh, and now he’s running around trying to capture people.

Guests run everywhere, trying to head for safety. The Pharaoh makes a beeline for Tana, but Riley knows she’s fast enough. She let Gabbie get captured earlier, but no way is she letting another guest get randomly captured! Not again!

She pushes Tana out of the way, and a “no!” escapes Jetpack Girl as the Pharaoh grabs Riley, dragging her off.

“Run!” Riley yelled, even as Jetpack Girl tried running back for her. “Get the others to safety!”

Jetpack Girl is reluctant. Riley knows she would be. They’ve lost each other before (back in Everlock, with that box of spikes) and they don’t want to lose each other again.

They’re also aware, however, that this is for the best. Riley hopes, as she’s taken away, that she’ll see her love and the others again soon.

* * *

Good news: The guests are safe.

Bad news: Riley is captured and they have to find out _more _puzzles to get to the bottom of who supposedly killed the Pharaoh, as part of how to get the _first _of _nine jeweled keys._

Janet isn’t sure how to feel about this. Sure, she’s grateful that her son is alive, is in a loving relationship with Vincent Wells, who seems like a nice man. She’s also grateful that everyone is, more or less, working together to get out of this museum despite all the accumulating grudges they share with each other. However, they do have a Pharaoh/Mummy being to look out for, and she doesn’t want o get caught.

Janet, knowing how being taken by surprise by a killer clown led to her sudden death, is more than willing to look out for the Pharaoh. She doesn’t want the others being taken and killed like her. She vaguely wonders if Riley is dead already, but doesn’t voice that aloud. She doesn’t want Riley’s girlfriend to get worried.

As long as her son doesn’t get killed in this mess, she’s pretty sure she can work through this. She was Mayor of Everlock, a fighter, and she’s not about to go down as easily as she did last time. She blames herself for being controlled and corrupted by the Carnival Master, and she hopes he’s rotting in Hell somewhere.

“Behind you!”

Janet turns to see the Pharaoh running at her, jaw gaping open and revealing rotted teeth. A yelp escapes her lungs as she runs out of the way, barely dodging the Pharaoh, and she retreats with everyone else to get away from the Pharaoh.

_Damn it, will the chasing ever end!?_

They all make it into another room where there are cat paws everywhere. Why are there cat paws everywhere? Is this another puzzle?

She mentally groans. _How many puzzles are there!?_

* * *

Arthur is in the middle of watching the guests trying to open a chest when a hand grabs his shoulder. He turns, instinctively about to pull away when he realizes that it’s the Sorceress.

“You saw me.” She stated.

Arthur looked her in the eye. No way is he backing down from her look, even if it might mean a second death (and he really doesn’t want that). “I saw what you did, yes. I know you have a bigger play here.”

Her chain-gloved hand touches the side of his face, a smirk slowly forming on her lips. “Such a sweet face. I’d like to do sick things to it. But…” she pulls her hand away, “I need someone more _fierce_ for my plans.”

Before they can continue their conversation, the whole group plans on splitting up to find the two Sphinx Statues they need.

“Maybe I should stick with you and prove myself, then.” Arthur notes to the Sorceress.

He sees her grin. “I’d like to see you try.”

They stick together. This may or may not end well.

* * *

Mortimer sticks with his mom and Vincent, because 1. hey, his Mom doesn’t know combat and probably needs some help, and 2. He freaking loves Vincent and he’s also aware he’s one of the few people that will help him keep a level head in this world. He’s seen Vincent panic in Everlock, and Vincent’s also just as good as keeping him grounded, too. It works out well.

Alison also accompanies the group trying to find the golden Obelisk; consisting of DeStorm, Lele, Tim, Bretman and Tana. Figuring out the first few bits were easy; two people posed in front of doors to get another clue, and then they had to knock down a statue.

Just as Tim suggests finding rocks, Mortimer takes out a gun and _shoots down the statue_. Everyone else stared at him.

“What?” Mortimer managed. “It works.”

Vincent swallowed. “We need to save our ammo.”

“I know, but we’re also on a time limit. Ashes at six a.m., right?”

He sees Vincent nod. “Fair.”

“The Pharaoh’s back!” Alison suddenly calls, and Mortimer immediately yells at everyone to run.

* * *

Everyone runs. Vincent knows he’s running, but then he notices the Pharaoh nearing the Socialite. “Lele! Behind you!”

“Shit!” Lele looks up to see the Pharaoh about to grab her, but that’s when a gunshot goes off. The Pharaoh staggers, faltering in its movement.

Vincent is thankful that the Jael and Ryu got him cleared to use firearms on this trip. He doesn’t have a lot of ammo, though, but he felt that it was worth using this time. Without missing a beat, he ran to Lele, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her away from the Pharaoh. “This way!”

Unfortunately for Vincent, the snarl of the Pharaoh warns him of it approaching again. Using himself as a human shield, he put himself between the Pharaoh and Lele. Vincent tried to shoot the Pharaoh again, but the Pharaoh grabbed his wrist attached to the hand holding the gun, squeezing it tight. Both of them end up in a grapple, and Vincent drops the gun.

“Vincent!?” Alison started, but Vincent shook his head.

“Run! I’ll hold it off!”

“Are you…”

_“Go!”_

Vincent gets dragged by the Pharaoh into the Lounge, where Riley is on a couch. Her hands are tied, and soon Vincent’s hands are tied, and the Pharaoh walks off to try grabbing more people.

“Riley?” Vincent whispered. “You okay?”

“I’m okay.” Riley breathes back, and Vincent manages to get himself seated on the couch beside her. At least his legs are free, he figures. “What about you?”

“Other than getting captured, fine. Have you been here the whole time?”

“Yeah.” Riley tried to struggle with her bonds, but then she shook her head. “Are the others okay?”

“They were when I last saw them.” He had a bad feeling that they could do nothing but wait at this point. _Damn it._

He just hopes Lele is safe.

* * *

Jetpack Girl goes with Arthur, the Sorceress, and Calliope with the guests Justine, Matt, Joey, Gabbie and Alex to get the Sphinxes.

Which meant also working with the one lady who happened to be the Pharaoh’s wife_. Whoop._ She seemed rather cold. Sure, that was justified due to her being upset over her husband’s death and now him being at such unrest, but still. Jetpack Gilr couldn’t help but feel like something was…off, with that lady. Maybe it was the fact that Arthur and the Sorceress were with her and Calliope, too, but still.

The question is: Can she make sure no one in the group kills each other? She’s more than fine with shooting Arthur if necessary, and even the Sorceress, and she’s still not sure if she can trust the Pharaoh’s wife. That’s three potential bad people in one room with five Youtubers and two Helpers.

Then again, that makes it seven versus three, even if five of them aren’t trained in combat. Maybe they’ll be okay.

She hopes Riley wasn’t hurt when the Pharaoh captured her.

* * *

Arthur offers to help the guests with the jar-related puzzle (said guests are Justine, Matt, Joey, Gabbie and Alex). Justine immediately refuses his help.

“Because of the whole shtick about working with the evil, it’s all your fault we’re even here.” Justine’s eyes blaze with a fire he hasn’t seen before. “I don’t trust you, okay!? Not after everyone buried me alive—I bet you were the one that rigged that machine so Andrea would die!”

Arthur can only give her a look. “I’m not among the ones that buried you alive, Justine. I just happened to choose your name when _almost everyone voted for you.”_

Justine gets her answer wrong twice, meaning that she’s now twice in the voting pile later on. _Serves her right_, he thinks.

Matt doesn’t say anything to Arthur, looks skeptical when he glances towards him. Arthur doesn’t say anything when Matt gets his answer wrong once.

The group soon uncovers a chest, and then they have…another rod? How many rods are in this place? Arthur can’t help but stare at this. It seems like a never-ending parade of weird items and puzzles (almost like the mansion he tried to take over completely, but on a bigger scale). It is honestly somewhat annoying.

But then they find out that the rod is a lie-detector. Joey puts it to everyone’s foreheads, Arthur included. Arthur only goes with it so he doesn’t have to.

“I _loved _my husband,” The Pharaoh’s (former) wife snipped, “I had nothing to do with this!”

And then she runs.

Immediately Arthur runs after her. She’s fast, but _he’s faster_, so he immediately grabs her arms from behind with his hands, dragging her back screaming and kicking.

“Put the rod on her,” He snapped, looking towards Joey, who simply complies. The rod glows.

They found the liar.

And now for the bloody part.

* * *

The Sorceress is a little impressed by Arthur taking initiative to grab the Pharaoh’s former wife. But she wonders, also, if he’ll be impressed by her killing said wife. She’s wanted to stab someone right now after all this craziness, and now she knows who.

“The Pharaoh was weak,” The woman sputtered, looking towards the guests with hate in her gaze, and the Sorceress stabs her before she can say anything else.

In seconds, the Pharaoh’s wife is dead.

Justine looks pale. “A-at least we have the blood now.”

The Sorceress can’t help but chuckle as she sees Calliope’s shocked expression, and she waves her bloody hand at her. Jetpack Girl doesn’t say anything, but does give her a look somewhere between concern and mildly freaked out.

Gabbie puts the blood of the Pharaoh’s wife on the box they have to open, and inside they find the Sphinx.

_One step closer to getting the Jeweled Key,_ the Sorceress figures as the group head backs to the Lounge to reunite with the others. She sideglances Arthur, and smirks. _And perhaps, one step closer to someone that will be useful for my plans._

* * *

The Lounge doors open. Riley and Vincent are tied, but are quickly freed.

And thus, voting begins.

Calliope opts to shuffle and draw the voted cards, citing her previous experience. Alison lets her go with it, and it turns out Alison did this before. Arthur notes that this is different than what he had to do in the first house.

“You actually have _cards.”_ Arthur chuckled faintly as he watched the guests deliberate among their groups. “Back at my mansion, they had to write names on strips of paper.”

“You tried to take over an evil house that didn’t supply you with any custom cards?” Mortimer noted. “Interesting.”

“At least there aren’t cards with our _own_ faces on it.” Jetpack Girl muttered, shaking her head. One of her arms wrapped around Riley’s waist to hold her close. “But which one of us wants to go in with the two voted in?”

“Is this how it works now?” Arthur managed, looking towards her. “You guide them in, and then go protect the loser of the challenge?”

“It worked in Everlock.” Vincent isn’t quite glaring at Arthur, but it’s clear he’s still not completely calm, given the tenseness of his jaw. “It’s going to work here. It has to.”

“You can’t always apply a one-size-fits-all situation.” The butler managed. “One of us could die as a result, or maybe it’ll fail and one of these dead guests will die again.”

“At least one of us already died once.” Jetpack Girl pointed out.

Alison stared at her. “You sacrificed yourself, too?”

The short-haired blond shrugged. “Iron maiden. Wasn’t fun. Got resurrected about an hour later, though. Turns out I missed Mortimer and Vincent hooking up while I was gone.”

Arthur and Alison exchange honesty-weirded-out looks at that. Calliope didn’t blame them for that.

“And then we resurrected two people later that night to defeat the Carnival Master.” Calliope pointed out. She didn’t want to give away Jael and Ryu’s names, just in case. “Resurrection was possible _then._ We’re not so sure about here.”

“The note did say a final death with no return.” Riley swallowed, and Calliope noticed her paling face. “We might not get a second chance this time.”

Calliope took a deep breath, and then placed a hand on her shoulder. “Whatever happens,” She managed, “We have to make sure the guests get out of here. No matter what.”

* * *

The votes came through, and Justine and Tana were voted into the sands of the Egyptian Exhibit.

Calliope and Alison offered to look after the two, while the others stayed behind in the Lounge. As Tana and Justine were chased by the Pharaoh, Alison gauged her options.

She did not have weapons on her, save for her fangs. And she doubted, given the Pharaoh’s undead state, that she could just suck blood out of him and have him die that way.

Sealing him in the coffin sounded like the best solution, but then again she wasn’t sure.

“Mummy, mummy stop!” Tana holds up the rod controlling the Pharaoh. “Bring me the jeweled key!”

_Maybe they don’t have to fight the Pharaoh. _The Pharaoh obeys Tana’s command and lets go of a previously-screaming Justine, and Alison’s heart skips a beat. _Maybe they found a loophole?_

Justine and Tana hug, and Alison can’t help but smile. She then looks towards the Pharaoh, who brings out a new case with the key hanging in it. Tana goes over to grab the key, but sees the note on top.

_“Your betrayal is not yet complete. You must command the Pharaoh to kill your friend if you wish to claim the key.”_

Well, so much for loopholes.

“Tana,” Calliope looks towards the Pin-Up Girl, who’s hesitant about what to do, _“Don’t_ say anything.”

Tana keeps her lips zipped. Alison tries to think of a loophole. _Command the Pharaoh to kill your friend? ‘Friend’ as in fellow guest? Friend as in one of us instead? What other ‘friends’ does the Pharaoh have?_

Then she remembers the Pharaoh’s guards that they sent into the firepit cage earlier, after Joey commanded them to. Alison looks towards Calliope, clearing her throat before making a quick suggestion.

“What if we make the Pharaoh kill his own guards? They’re literally in the cage where we…”

Calliope nods, and Tana understands what’s going on, quickly ordering the Pharaoh. “Kill your guards in the firepit cage outside!”

The Pharaoh, surprisingly, obeys. It starts marching out of the exhibit. Alison swiftly follows it to ensure it does that, while Calliope escorts Justine back to the Lounge.

“Let me come with you,” Tana managed, rushing over to Alison’s side, but Alison quickly shook her head.

“I don’t know, Tana. If it backfires…” Alison recalls the other Helpers speaking of trying to keep the guests safe, and she shakes her head. “I can’t let you get hurt.”

“I have to. I order him.” Tana points out. “Please.”

Alison relents.

* * *

They make just outside the building when they hear a roar. The two look towards the firepit cage, just in time to see the cage door break down from the sheer physical force of the Pharaoh wrenching it open. The Pharaoh invades the cage, and slaughters all the confused Egyptian guards.

Alison grimaces and covers Tana’s eyes. _Maybe that wasn’t the best idea. Sorry, guards._

But at least it works. The Pharaoh’s bloodlust appears fulfilled. Tana quickly orders the Pharaoh to go back where it belongs, and it does.

“Thank you.” The Pin-Up Girl looks solemn, and she swallows. “For letting me come with you.”

“You’re welcome.” Alison manages, and she’s about to walk Tana back inside the building when Tana speaks up.

“I’m glad I was…able to do something, you know.”

“Hm?” Alison looked towards Tana, who shrugs.

“I don’t know why I died at the Path of Betrayal. I don’t know if I wanna know. But I just don’t want to get pushed aside as useless, like with the game of stones. Not again.”

Alison places a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I think you’ve been doing a very good job so far. And you even helped save your friend Justine. And,” She looks her in the eye, “We’re not going to let any of you get hurt if it’s the last thing we do. I think most of us have that in mind.”

Most, because she’s still not so sure about Arthur and the Sorceress. But it gets the message across, at least, that no one will be discarded.

Tana smiles. “Thanks, Alison.”

They go grab the key, and head back to the Lounge. Alison can only hope that the next death challenges are as smooth as this one.


	5. Preoccupied Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While collecting gold is on the guests' minds, the Helpers have other things in mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say thank you for over 200 hits on this fanfic so far! I hope you all enjoy reading this new chapter! XD

The guests celebrate Tana and Justine’s return, but after turning the first key in the Collector’s Vault, Alex finds a coin.

“I think it’s a gold coin!” Alex called out, and the guests instinctively crowd around to see. Jetpack Girl gets close enough to take a look at it.

And that’s when _a terrifying, bird-headed man charges through the doors in front of her, grabbing her by the neck_. Everything’s a blur as she instinctively reaches for her own neck to pry his taloned hand off it, hoping she doesn’t choke, but then she feels him suddenly let go, as well as a scream of pain.

Garuda backs up from Jetpack Girl, bleeding slightly in the side, and that’s when she notices Calliope swinging at him with the fishhook; the same fishhook she used to kill Willy back in Everlock (and also the same one Vincent used to try stopping the Carnival Master).

“Hands off her!” Calliope barked at Garuda, who hissed back. Jetpack Girl reaches for her gun to try shooting, but Garuda immediately flees.

“You okay, Joanne?” Riley instantly rushes to Jetpack Girl’s side, and she offered Riley a reassuring grin, massaging her neck with her free hand.

“Yeah…yeah, I’m okay. Thanks, though.”

Calliope sighed as she looked towards her. “I’m glad you’re okay. But I suppose that being just now…”

_“Garuda._ I remember the Collector mentioning him.” Jetpack Girl looked toward Arthur, who frowned. The butler didn’t look happy at speaking of that name, or the next one that followed: “He certainly reminds me of Colin.”

Vincent made a face, but it’s Tim that speaks up, clearly pissed at the mention of this Colin. “You gotta be kidding me…I swear, if Colin’s down here, the first thing I’ll do when we find him is kick his butt! It’s because of him that I’m dead!”

DeStorm looked toward Tim, jaw clenching. Jetpack Girl vaguely recalls him and Tim talking to each other about how they died earlier. “You told me you got shot when you died. Did he…?”

Tim shook his head. “Nah, shot myself in the head. Death challenge. But it was for him to get his stupid gold!”

Vincent shook his head. “I never liked Colin.”

Even Arthur looks in agreement with the former madman, for once. “None of us liked Colin. I just hope he’s in Hell already so we don’t have to see him again.”

Matt grimaced. “He _really_ liked gold, I presume?”

“Greed was his fucking vice.” Lele muttered, shaking her head. “He could’ve left without it, but he insisted we get it for him. Rest is history.”

Jetpack Girl makes a mental note to punch Colin in the face, if they ever run into him. Maybe she’ll let Tim punch him in the face, since this man is the one behind Tim’s eventual death in the first place.

* * *

Turns out the challenge is this: Every person for themselves! _Everyone has to collect gold!_

Riley isn’t sure if this is a good thing. If lots of gold turned Colin to the dark side, how will it affect all the guests?

Turns out, everyone is working to grab coins as fast as they can. Once they count them up, Tana and a few others are unconvinced the DeStorm has “thirteen coins,” and Justine grabs twenty coins. Bretman somehow grabs thirty-two. No one has a clue how he managed that, but good for him?

The Helpers have no coins. They’re not at risk of a death challenge, so there’s no point in collecting them for themselves. However, Riley does notice Alex slip a coin to DeStorm, and she wonders if DeStorm actually has less than he claimed. Or maybe he really does have thirteen coins because Alex just gave him one. Who knows?

After the initial coin gathering, the groups must split to get two legendary blades meant to slay Garuda and to get the next jeweled key. One group goes to Heaven, the other goes to Hell.

Riley immediately asks if she can go to Heaven. Hell does not sound fun. Jetpack Girl decides to stick with her, and the two merrily take Vincent and Alison with them, leaving Calliope, Mortimer, the Sorceress, Janet and Arthur to go to Hell.

* * *

Arthur accompanies the group headed to Hell.

Not _actually_ Hell, but a representation of it, it seems. They get chased by Garuda, but he and Calliope slam the doors in Garuda’s face. It’s oddly satisfying. They should do this more often. He knows _he_ will, for sure.

Turns out they have to summon a demon. Arthur’s seen rituals to get rid of evil and also summon it, having participated in such rituals himself before, but he wasn’t expecting this demon to be blue…._or _have several dismembered, bloody arms as a skirt. After one look, Arthur makes sure to never look down again. He’s killed people a lot, but chopping them apart and wearing them as clothes was _never_ his style.

He sideglances towards Janet. At least she looks as disgusted as him. Also, how the hell is this woman Mortimer’s mother? She really looks too young to be his mom. He quickly chalks it up to two things; demonic rituals, or the 1970s has _very_ good makeup compared to the 1920s. Maybe it’s both. He has no clue.

* * *

“Alison?” It’s Vincent trying to speak to her, while everyone is doing their little tasks in Heaven.

Alison looks towards Joey and Alex attempting the yoga pose, Riley and Jetpack Girl as well as the other guests cheering them on, before looking towards Vincent. “Yes?”

“You know the Sorceress.” Vincent managed. He took a deep breath, before speaking. “I know Riley killed her, as well as what the Sorceress did with her, but…what do _you_ know of the Sorceress? I just thought I’d ask, because we are stuck working with her right now.”

“Well….she had a staff when I last saw her.” Alison remembers the few times she saw the Sorceress, and how she summoned Jorogumo, as well as the harpies that led to Jesse and Liza’s deaths respectively. “And it doesn’t look like she has it now.”

“Riley told me that the staff might be the source of her power.”

“Meaning she’s looking for it, if that’s the case.”

“Exactly.” Vincent swallowed, looking her in the eye. “We can’t let her get it. I don’t trust her.”

“Good. Because I don’t trust her either.” Alison looked towards the group, celebrating as Alex and Joey completed their yoga pose, before speaking. “And what about Arthur?”

“I’m not taking chances with _him.”_ She saw his jaw clench. “I don’t want anyone going through what I went with him. Especially not Mortimer. The first chance I get, I have to take him out.” His voice cracked a little bit, and Alison offered him her hand.

“Let me help with that.” She managed. “Let me help you.”

“If you let me help you, I’ll let you help me.”

She couldn’t help but grin, just a little. “Deal.”

* * *

“One of you will _die_ tonight,” Kali proclaims as she appears before the group, before pointing out, “Or, maybe just all of you.”

The Sorceress is not in the mood for dealing with more annoying people as she tries cornering her.

“Don’t toy with me, _demon whore.”_ The Sorceress hissed at Kali, looking her in the eyes. “We want the blade.”

Some of the guests go ‘oooooh’ in the corner, but Kali isn’t fazed. She demands that they solve a riddle, or pay twenty coins if they can’t complete it in the time limit.

“Pay two coins to begin.” Kali throws out a hand, looking towards the group with an eager eye, and Gabbie and Tana (after unsuccessfully attempting to get DeStorm to pay for it) pay one coin each to start the search for clues. The Sorceress decides to let the guests struggle on their own. She has her own plans. She eyes Kali, and takes a step closer to her…

* * *

Jetpack Girl is pretty sure this is going well so far. They just finished this yoga activity, and now they have another clue…

And Garuda’s back. _Greattttt._

All the guests scatter, with Vincent, Alison and Jetpack Girl trying to take them to safety. Mortimer, however, spots Garuda swooping towards Bretman, and he quickly runs between them both.

“You’ll have to get through me first, chicken man!” Jetpack Girl yells, to get Garuda’s attention. The moment Garuda gets close, she takes out her gun and whacks him in the face with it. Garuda shrieks, but raises his own rod before slamming it into her side.

Jetpack Girl stumbles. Bretman yells out a warning, but it only helps her barely dodge Garuda’s next attack.

A ‘bang’ echoed, from Vincent shooting Garuda in the arm, and Garuda screamed, turning to face him. Jetpack Girl quickly used her gun (safety still on) to whack him in the back of the head. Garuda falls, groaning, and Jetpack Girl quickly gets everyone to run to safety.

They make it far enough from Garuda before Riley checks on her. “Are you okay?”

Jetpack Girl lifted her shirt, just high enough to check, and winces. There’s definite bruising. “I’ll…be fine, I think. I don’t think I broke a rib yet. Are there any bandages in this Museum?”

Alison shook her head. “Not that I’m aware of. But I’ll keep an eye out.” The vampire princess looks around as Jetpack Girl lowers her shirt for now. Bretman and the other guests are all heard speaking with each other about looking for bandaids, and unfortunately no one has any on hand, but Bretman does thank Jetpack Girl for saving his ass.

* * *

Janet takes one good look at the Sorceress as the guests hurriedly try to solve the riddle, and…turns out, the Sorceress and Kali are totally flirting over there. It’s hard not to look at the two being so blatantly touchy with each other.

“And…what are you proposing?” Janet quickly realizes that there’s more than flirting going on.

The Sorceress gets very close to whisper in Kali’s ear. “We _kill _the Collector,” She cooed, “And take over this museum.” There’s a smile on her face at that. Janet realizes that she really shouldn’t trust the Sorceress. At all.

Probably a good thing the Collector isn’t here right now, or else 1. The Collector would probably smite the Sorceress and 2. The Sorceress would have the opportunity to smite the Collector. Both of them seem like powerful beings, more than the Carnival Master that Janet knew led to her own demise. She wasn’t sure who was more powerful. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know.

Kali rejects the Sorceress with a laugh. “This bitch likes to play with _fire!”_

Janet quickly turns away to help the guests put some of the items they found in order, to solve the riddle. They solve it, but then it turns out it’s a trick. The second blade will only be given after someone’s dead.

Janet glared at Kali. Kali seems only amused by this. The offer of a scroll for the person with the lowest amount of coins, however, has everyone’s eyes shifting towards DeStorm.

“I only have five…”

Janet grimaced. No wonder he didn’t want to fess up about how much he actually had. She supposes that she’d do the same in his situation, and she watches as DeStorm pays two coins (giving him only three left) to get the little scroll.

Whatever happens next with this coins, she’s not sure. But there’s this fire that surges in her (not literal). She’s failed to protect people before. It’s her fault the Carnival Master had her under the influence, her fault that she died and her fault that Everlock is in a worse state than what she knows before her death. (At least, that’s what she thinks.)

She’s not letting these innocent people die a second time, even if they’re mostly strangers to her. And sure, she’s not as great at fighting as Alison might be (the lady is a vampire princess!) or the Sorceress (who seems to specialize in stabbing people), but she’s a fighter in her own way. She can make it work.

She just hopes the other group from Heaven got their blade for defeating Garuda. Maybe they don’t need two to slay him. At least, she hopes that's the case.


	6. Loophole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janet takes a chance, and finds a loophole in the process.

Many coins are exchanged.

_Every single Helper is left completely confused,_ because there are way too many scrolls to keep track of, and the guests are doing a better job at keeping up with it than they are.

“Can we just double-check who has the least amount of coins now?” Jetpack Girl asked. She felt almost dazed after seeing all the coins get exchanged back and forth. “I…I think we all lost track…”

Joey takes one good look at her and the other Helpers, winces, and asks everyone to recount their coins. Turns out, DeStorm lost all of his, and Tim has the second-least amount of coins, meaning that the Enforcer and Con Man will head into the next death challenge.

* * *

“Do you have the blade?” The Sorceress overhears Janet asking the group that went to ‘Heaven.’ “I’d like to go in and keep watch this time.”

Mortimer looked towards Janet. “Should I come with you, Mom?”

“You have a gun, right? You can defend yourself?”

“Yeah.” Mortimer holds up the gun, and Janet nods.

“We can go together, then.” She finally decides. “We can take down Garuda.”

The Sorceress sizes up Janet. Her? The person who can’t fight? The person who literally got mindcontrolled and killed by the Carnival Master, whoever that man is? She doubts it.

“Are you sure you want to go in?” Calliope asked Janet, looking her in the eye. “I can always go in again.”

Janet nodded. “I know you mean well. I really do. But I let down a lot of people, and I want to redeem myself somehow.”

“Okay. Well…” Calliope paused, before the heaven group handed her the first of the two blades needed to destroy Garuda. “Here. This should help.”

“Good luck,” Riley chimed, and Janet looked towards her, grinning softly.

“Thanks.”

The Sorceress had a feeling that it might not go so well for her, but she didn’t comment. She’d learn that when she died again, if she was so foolish to protect those two men.

Really, was it worth wasting their time? The Sorceress surveyed everyone else as Tim and DeStorm went to their death challenge with Mortimer and Janet. Sure, Justine survived so far, but that could have been a fluke. Would they actually keep on like this, saving everyone?

_…How annoying._

* * *

The death challenge went like this: They had to find these gems and place them on the altar as a sacrifice or something to Vishnu. Mortimer didn’t pay entire details to the whole thing, mainly because he was focused on Garuda and the notion of him getting the loser ‘torn to pieces.’

Whatever happened, he had to stop Garuda. He and his mom.

Since when was the last time it was just the two of them? Back in Everlock, before the night his mom died and his life changed after that? As far as Mortimer knew, his dad was dead, long before the Carnival Master even came to town. It was a bad fire; his dad was one of the firefighters but he didn’t survive trying to rescue some people trapped in their home. The town had mourned, given Mortimer and Janet condolences. Mortimer thought, at the time, that this was the worst it could get.

And then his mom got murdered by a clown years later, and that made it all feel even worse.

But life was funny, wasn’t it? He met Vincent and fell in love with him in a single night (sure, it was the same one when his mom died, but still). He made friends from other eras. Technically was an honorary member of the Society Against Evil, too.

And this time, he was determined to make sure this situation in Purgatory only got better. Make it out of there with everyone alive and intact, his mom included.

“You’re evil, man!” It’s Tim that cries out, just as DeStorm can only shrug.

“Survival of the fittest, my boy!”

“And you stole my wallet!”

DeStorm looked confused. Mortimer can’t help but be confused, because he wasn’t aware that Tim had a wallet on him when he died.

Garuda swooped in, and Mortimer immediately took out his gun, shooting. The bullet misses, but it does grab Garuda’s attention for a split second.

“Go!” Mortimer yelled at both of them. “Run! Me and my mom will handle this!”

* * *

Janet wracked her brain, hoping to find a solution as the bullet rang in the air. Without thinking too much on it, she ran at Garuda. She had one of the blades. Sure, only one, but was one enough?

Garuda’s club collided with the blade she held, not breaking it but certainly blocking her.

"Out of my way," Garuda hissed into her face. "You stand no chance against me!"

Janet shook her head. "Not today, bitch!" Though a fighter, however, she knew she couldn't hold him back for long, the two still pushing against each other as Tim scrambled to his feet as fast as he could, DeStorm yelling in the background for Tim to run as Mortimer dragged him off. The note from the Hell group came back to mind. 

_“The blade will be handed to you after one of you is dead.”_

Wait. Janet felt her grip loosen on her blade slightly as she stared down Garuda. _After one of you is…I’m…_

Janet, without hesitating, swung the blade in her hands and hit Garuda in the side, hard. Garuda hissed, falling over as he dropped the little staff he had in his hand, and Janet let out a yell of her own.

“I’m dead!” Janet wasn’t sure if Kali could hear her, but she was supposed to be the one handing over the second blade, right? “I’m a dead woman, Kali!”

“Wha..!?” Mortimer turned to stare at her. “Mom?”

“I’m fucking _dead!_” Janet yelled for the third time, ignoring her son's confusion. “I got thrown off a balcony by a killer clown! You said that you wouldn’t give us the blade until after one of us is dead! Well, guess what!? _I’m already dead!_ You owe us one!”

Everyone goes silent, but then the crack of lightning made Janet turn. Out of the smoke and thunder came Kali. Janet made a good note to not look down and get another glimpse of the arms being used as her skirt, because that freaked her out the most about Kali’s appearance. She may be the mayor of Everlock and got killed by clowns, but she’s not the best with blood and gore despite that experience.

_“You’re_ not like the other bitch.” Kali chuckles, and then practically throws her the blade. Somehow, Janet catches it without nicking her hand on the blade by accident. “And you’re very smart, to note that. _The blade is yours.”_

“How dare you!” It’s Garuda screaming in protest. “You think you can beat me!? Vishnu is no longer my god!”

Janet had _enough_ of monsters just not going their merry way and not hurting innocent people. And she’s sure as hell not going to let Garuda hurt Tim or DeStorm. Gripping both blades in her hands, she turned towards Garuda, taking a deep breath.

“You think you know me?” Janet stared down Garuda. “You think you can _beat _me!? Not today, Garuda!”

“Slay the bird man!” Kali bellowed, and Janet ran at Garuda with both blades, swinging them at him.

Garuda didn’t stand a chance, toppling to the ground upon impact. Blood instantly spurted from his neck after the blades cut deep into it, not enough to decapitate him but more than enough to bleed out fast. He let out gurgles and chokes, before life left him completely. Janet stood above his corpse, taking a deep breath. Her head felt not quite there, as if a fog lifted from her own mind, but as she looked down at herself and Garuda, she realized two things.

First; she did actually just kill Garuda.

Second; her outfit was ruined because of all the blood. Then again, she figured she should have expected that.

“That was awesome!” Tim cheered, and Janet turned to see the Con Man grinning. He’s still alive, and she’s pretty sure she sees even DeStorm crack a grin. “That was so badass!”

“Uh,” Janet can’t help but chuckle sheepishly, “Thanks?”

DeStorm doesn’t say anything but nods in approval. Janet takes that as a ‘thank you.’

“Mom!” Mortimer ran over to Janet, his face half gleeful, the other half shocked. “Did you just…?”

Janet can’t help but beam at her son. “Your mom’s a fighter. About time I showed off, right?”

“Oh my god.” Mortimer pulled her into a hug regardless of the blood on her, and she hugged him back. “That was…that was _amazing.”_

“I was just doing what I could to help.”

“But I’ve never seen you slay someone like that! That was really awesome!” Mortimer pulled back from hugging her with a chuckle. “We should get back to the others.”

Janet paused, before grabbing the key from Garuda’s corpse and handing it to her son. “I got the key. Let’s go!”

Janet, Mortimer, Tim and DeStorm booked it back to the Lounge. On the way, Janet could only hear Kali’s laughter, and she wondered, as she kept running back to rejoin the others, if there would be more fights in the future.

For now, however? She was relieved. Relieved she could finally do something about this mess. She and her son were going to get out of this mess—together.


	7. The Party's New Groove

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ladies (sans Jetpack Girl) have potential betrothal to deal with. The men (plus Jetpack Girl) have potential death to evade. Vincent makes a choice, and someone will be chosen as the Emperor's new bride.

Riley swallowed as Janet, Tim, DeStorm and Mortimer walked into the lounge. “What happened!? Why is there so much blood…?”

Was someone dying right now? Did someone _actually _die? How bloody was it? Riley couldn’t stop the questions racing through her mind. Everyone else looked fine, so did that mean…

Janet held up two blades in her hands. “I killed Garuda.”

The rest of the guests immediately burst into cheering.

“But how?” Alison asked. “The note said that someone had to die before the second blade was given.”

Janet gave her a look. _“I’m_ a dead person. I technically already counted, so Kali had no choice but to give it to me once I literally yelled at her for it.”

Arthur looked towards her, a soft hum coming from his throat. “That’s very clever, Ms. Wilson.” A chuckle escaped him at that. “I didn’t think of that myself, either.”

Janet offered him a grin. “Thank you, Arthur.”

Vincent made a face at Janet being grateful for the compliment, but didn’t say anything. Riley still betted that Vincent didn’t trust Arthur. Given what she knew of him from Vincent, she supposed Vincent wouldn’t be trusting him any time soon.

How did she feel about the others? Alison was new to Riley. Polite and sure, a vampire, but still nice. She didn’t drink anyone else’s blood yet, so that was something. And Riley knew there was no way in hell she’d trust the Sorceress.

But Arthur…was different. She wasn’t sure in what way exactly, but he was different. Yes, he and Vincent had terrible history, but the former butler seemed just as desperate to go back to the living world like everyone else was. And if he was willing to be cooperative, why not work with him? Distrust might only slow them down.

* * *

Smoke filled the room as the next key was turned. Mortimer wasn’t quite sure what was going on until the smoke cleared.

He was outside with all the other guys, and they were chained up.

And…Jetpack Girl was here? But where were all the other ladies!? Why is Jetpack Girl the only lady here? Did all the rebels mistake her for a dude? To be fair, she _did_ go for the leather jacket that looked similar to his and Joey’s own, and they were standing pretty close to each other right before they got captured. Maybe the rebels mistook them both to be brothers or something.

He spots people speaking with each other about a rebellion. What the hell is going on? Who are these people, even? Mortimer knew he was chained, but maybe these people could help them.

“Excuse me,” Mortimer finally manages, “I can’t help but overhear…”

One of the two rebels present is quick to point the blade at him.

“Alright,” Mortimer swallowed, realizing that he’s not exactly sure how to distract these people. “that’s, uh, sort of my throat. Um.”

“Get your fucking blade away from him!”

Mortimer internally cursed as the second of the two rebels pointed their blade at Vincent’s throat. The former madman looked panicked, and despite Mortimer wanting to reassure Vincent that things were okay, he knew he had to act fast.

“I was just..I was just gonna say, before you start killing us, maybe we could tell you about the secrets we know. Right, guys? _Secrets!”_

All the rest of the male guests chorus some expression of agreement, and the rebel starts demanding about what secrets they have.

“I still pee my bed.” Alex offers.

The rebel glared at him. “That is _not_ useful information!”

Arthur restrains a shit-eating grin at Alex’s ‘secret.’ Matt, Tim and DeStorm try not to laugh, with little success, and Bretman looks on the verge of smirking if not laughing. Even Vincent looked mildly amused, and Mortimer can’t help but be amused himself.

Joey tries to fake knowing about the spear. “It’s a spear that’s long, and that’s, uh, powerful…”

It doesn’t work. Mortimer can’t believe how _horrible_ these guys are at lying, and judging by the expression on Jetpack Girl’s face, he figures she probably agrees about how bad they are at lying right now.

Thankfully, no one dies. They get threatened to find the spear in an hour, however, or get killed by said rebels.

“So…” Mortimer tugs at his chains. “Any idea how to get out, guys?”

Jetpack Girl is distracted. “I hope Riley and the others are okay.”

“I’m sure they’re doing much better than _us,”_ Arthur spouts, “Thank you very much.”

Mortimer glared at both of them. “Now is not the time to argue, okay!? We gotta get out of these chains!”

* * *

The Sorceress is surprised by the Emperor’s notice telling the ladies to compete for being his Empress, but it’s not actually a bad idea now that she thinks about it a bit more. Wed him, kill him, _take the kingdom._ Whoever wins could make it work. She’s just a little disappointed that she herself can’t participate, though. She’s more than sure she can seduce this damn Emperor and kill him quickly (or maybe just skip to the killing, which seems much more preferable).

Riley’s preoccupied with worrying about Jetpack Girl, but Janet and Alison are quick to reassure her that she’s probably fine and she’ll find them later.

“Actually,” Janet managed, “Why did she get taken? She’s a lady like the rest of us.”

Alison shrugged. “Maybe the rebels mistook her for a guy? Her hair is pretty short like the others.”

“Either that, or the rebels are idiots.”

Alison doesn’t comment.

“Maybe the rebels are nice people?” Riley asked.

The Sorceress gave her good half a look. “Rebels are rarely nice to the ones they rebel against.”

Riley didn’t respond to that.

* * *

The Emperor makes himself look like a jerk. Alison can’t help but wrinkle her nose at his behaviour. _He’s even worse than my father, in a way, and that’s something._

The Emperor also has a mother, who explains that the winner will not just marry the Emperor, but also have immunity from the death challenge. The ladies are much more motivated to win, knowing that they won’t die this time if they do. Alison hopes one of them can win, because that would be great.

She does consider stealing one of the several outfits displayed. It would be nice to dress up or get changed out of the bloody clothes that one two Helpers have on at this point (she noticed the Emperor’s mother wrinkling her nose at Janet’s bloodstained outfit). Then again, she’s not sure how long they’ll last. Also, they don’t look very good at protecting people from harm, given how silky and soft it is as opposed to durable armor. She decides not to take any of it in the end. At least, maybe not now. (Later, though, after all this fighting is over? She’s not opposed to it.)

* * *

Eventually the guys get out of their chains. But now they have to prove themselves in these little challenges to get the spear they need. Bretman passes his test easily. Alex fails his, which isn’t good, and Vincent has a feeling the Aviator might go into the next death challenge because of this. DeStorm and Joey, however, prove themselves on the other two challenges, and then it all goes down to the posing.

“You need to point that bow a little higher.” Matt’s trying his best to give directions to the other guys, using the picture as a reference. Tim can’t help but ask why they all can’t just dab instead. Vincent doesn’t know what dabbing _is,_ so maybe it’s just best that they stick with trying to follow the picture.

“I’d like to volunteer to go into the next death challenge. Save the guests and all.” It’s Arthur that speaks up, and Vincent looked towards him, frowning.

“You’d actually volunteer?” He asked. This is the same man that let several people in the mansion die the one time. “Why?”

Arthur gives him a look. “It’s obvious you’d rather have them all alive than dead. Especially since the rest of your friends want that, too.”

“If you’re going in there,” Vincent lowered his voice, “I’m going in, too. And if you do fuck this up, I will sincerely kill you.”

“Vincent,” Mortimer started, moving to approach them both, but Vincent looked toward him.

“I know you mean well. But I also mean just as well when I say it.” The former madman managed. “I’m not taking too many chances on him. We both know why.”

Mortimer opened his mouth to speak, but he paused, closing it. He then nodded, running a hand through his hair. “Okay. I get it.”

“Thank you.” Vincent looked towards Arthur, who could only look him in the eye.

“You have my word.” Arthur managed. His jaw clenched a bit, and Vincent saw a faint anger in his gaze, likely frustration and not being trusted, but Vincent also knew well that he couldn’t fully trust him. He doubted he could fully trust him ever.

Jetpack Girl dragged Vincent aside. “You sure about this?”

“It has to be me.” Vincent told her. “I have to be in there with him, and it’s better me than anyone else, in the worst case scenario.”

He's not letting anyone else near him during this. Not even his friends, even if they are capable of defending themselves. The last thing he wants is them getting hurt.

* * *

“Hiii, I’m Miranda~!” Gabbie spinned around, taking on a nasally tone of voice, “Check it out!”

The Emperor is unamused, checking his fingernails instead of her. _“Boring.”_

“Who’s Miranda?” Janet whispers to Riley.

Riley shrugs. “I think it’s something Colleen did. It’s part of what she does back at home, I think?”

First they had that fashion contest (somehow, Tana impressed him with her twerking). Then they had an eating contest (Justine somehow ate enough dumplings and won the contest despite how bad they tasted), and now they had a…conversation contest? To make the Emperor laugh in a minute? Riley isn’t sure if any of them are going to pass this. Maybe he’ll just try marrying them all.

Riley shuddered at that last thought. Although it did mean immunity if he married _all _of the ladies, what would happen to the guys? Also, she can’t imagine the Emperor trying to marry her. Or Jetpack Girl. Or Calliope or Alison, let alone Janet and the Sorceress. _As long as I’m not stuck marrying him, I’ll be fine._

Lele speaks some bits of dialogue in Spanish to try impressing the Emperor. It’s not clear whether he’s laughing at her or with her. Justine attempts to impress the Emperor with Apple-related facts. None of the Helpers have no idea what Apple products are and neither does the Emperor, but it’s unclear whether he’s intrigued by this ‘Apple’ like how he was with the twerking or not.

Riley makes the mental note to figure out what ‘Apple’ is, other than the fruit, later when they get out of here.

The Emperor, however, makes his decision. “The least boring out of all of you…” He hummed, before pointing at Justine. “It’ll have to be you.”

Justine lets out a “What!?” All the other ladies’ jaws drop or they let out their own gasps. Lele quietly curses the fact that she didn’t win. Riley tries to just get past the shock, usher everyone out of the room and back to the Lounge, but Justine, unfortunately, has to hang back due to preparing for the wedding.

“We’ll come back for you!” Riley called to her. “Promise!”

Justine can only nod, lips twisting as she looks between her friends and the Emperor and his mother. The door closes.

Riley can only hope that Justine doesn’t get hurt while they’re doing the votes. It would be bad if she did, and Riley knows, deep down, that the guilt from Joey dying hasn’t been reversed since he was revived. That if Justine or anyone else here dies, she might feel that regret again.

But she also knows this: She can’t lose hope that things will be okay. Not now.


	8. Moving Forwards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things take an unexpected turn in this death challenge.

Good news: They got the spear! The rebels didn’t kill anyone!

Bad news: The Emperor wants two people to perform a death challenge for the wedding. What kind of guy _does _that?

That was Jetpack Girl’s thought process after she hugged Riley. She was glad Riley was safe, and she was ready to beat the shit out of the Emperor if he or his mother harmed her (even if it meant getting in trouble and potentially ruining a wedding).

“Are you okay?” Riley asked.

Jetpack Girl thought back to the fight between Arthur and Vincent, and Mortimer’s reluctant agreement with Vincent’s decision. “Yeah…_I’m_ fine, but I’m not so sure about everyone else.”

Riley frowned, looking towards the others as they disussed among themselves, Alison deciding to prepare the cards for voting this time as Janet and Mortimer talked to each other in low voices. Vincent sideglanced Arthur, who gave him a look, and the Sorceress leaned against the wall nearby, amusement flickering in her gaze. “I’m not sure either. But…is there anything we can do?”

“I don’t know.” Jetpack Girl kept an arm around her waist, squeezing her lightly to give her some comfort. “I guess we’ll have to find out in time.”

* * *

Vincent isn’t sure how to feel, knowing that he’s going into the same death challenge as Arthur and the Sorceress. There’s something about those two that he sensed wasn’t good. Granted, he knows that Arthur is already not a good person. The past events he went through with him speak to that. And he knows of Riley, Alison and Jetpack Girl’s shared history with the Sorceress, even if he hasn’t experienced it himself, and he knows that the Sorceress just killed a person about an hour or two ago, so that probably doesn’t help the idea of the Sorceress being anywhere close to good. Also doesn’t help that the Sorceress is, after all, the evil half of Riley herself.

If he wasn’t walking with the Sorceress and Arthur right now, into the throne room where the ‘wedding’ is to watch the death challenge, he would tell DeStorm and Alex to be careful. As they walk in, Justine is standing by the Emperor’s throne, staring at Alex and DeStorm with both concern and horror that one of them might die.

As said challenge starts, Vincent knows that last time DeStorm and Alex fought each other, back when the Sorceress reigned over the Victorian mansion, that DeStorm died. It’s very possible history will, sincerely, repeat. He might have to save DeStorm first, take out the Emperor to get Justine, and then grab Alex on the way out. The rebels are ready with the spear in hand to presumably kill the Emperor when the time is ready, so that should be helpful.

But what if something goes wrong? What if things are different?

Vincent isn’t sure what he’d do if something happens. His first instinct is just to protect Alex, DeStorm and Justine.

Alex gets in a pinch, making one wrong move. Vincent changes his plan in his head as he watches. Protect Alex, then DeStorm, then reach Justine.

But then DeStorm pulls his own move.

“This is for Lauren.”

Vincent vaguely remembers Alison telling him about a young lady in a yellow gown that the Novelist-now-Aviator once loved, dying to vampires eating her alive. It then clicks for Vincent that DeStorm Power isn’t just in an alliance with Alex this whole time. He’s making sure Alex _will_ get through this challenge to make up for what happened back at the Victorian manor all that time ago.

Even if it means potential death.

“DeStorm, _no!”_

Vincent’s cries go unheard as DeStorm steps, diagonally, backwards.

* * *

“You stepped diagonally.” The disguised assassin points out. “You cheated!”

“A _cheater?”_ The Emperor looked way too excited at the prospect as he stood from his throne, and took out a sword with a nasty grin on his face. “This just got interesting!”

The Sorceress watches the display, knows exactly what will happen next. Sure, Justine and Tim were lucky to escape death because they had the other helpers on their side, but how lucky would DeStorm be? Especially when he clearly cheated? Vincent runs forward to interfere, but two of the Emperor’s guards snag him, a panicked yell escaping him as he’s dragged back.

Alex steps out of the way, yelling at DeStorm to run, but DeStorm’s frozen in his tracks as he

_That’s _when Arthur snatches the Dragon’s Spear from nearby, and yells wordlessly, catching the Emperor’s attention before running him through with the spear.

The Sorceress sees Vincent’s jaw drop, just a bit, before yelling at Alex, Justine and DeStorm to book it out of there. The three guests immediately go with Vincent and run the heck out of there, knowing that they don’t want to die.

The Sorceress smiles, and takes the Emperor’s Mother’s horrified screams of “No! My baby!” as a cue to stab her to death. Why not? At least they were doing the rebels a favor.

The Sorceress doesn’t mind the blood on her hands. In fact, she finds it rather delightful that she got to stab at least two people in the past few hours. She looks towards Arthur, who offers her a smile. It’s polite, but there’s a sharp edge to it, like he’s ready to stab someone again.

_He is certainly willing to get hands dirty._ She couldn’t help but grin after leaving the Dragon Rebellion to their doing, heading back to the lounge, after Arthur politely offered his arm to her and she took it. _He’s perfect._

* * *

“What the hell….!?” Alex is shocked to the point of almost laughing, despite the chaos of it all. “This is the _Red Wedding!”_

“I can’t believe he helped us.” Justine pointed out, eyes wide as she looked behind towards the mess. She, Alex, DeStorm and Vincent are on the way to the Lounge at this point. Vincent isn’t sure what’s taking the Sorceress and Arthur so long. “Why?”

Vincent cleared his throat as best as he could. The sight of Arthur killing the Emperor stayed in his mind. “I didn’t expect him to help.”

“What?” DeStorm looked towards him. “Is it because of you two having bad blood over what happened?”

“Yeah. He’d never do that if it was me in danger.” Vincent frowned, before shaking his head. “I don’t understand. _Why_ is he helping?” It doesn’t add up.

“Maybe he had a change of heart?” Alex guessed. “Kinda like how me and DeStorm get along now?”

DeStorm can’t help but chuckle at that, but doesn’t comment otherwise.

“Maybe there’s something else.” Justine shrugged off the fancy robe she wore (she still had her Adventurer clothes on underneath). “What if it’s part of another master plan?”

“A master plan?” Alex looked towards Vincent, frowning. “You told us that he locked you in a straitjacket. What else was he doing, back when he was alive?”

Vincent had a bad feeling someone would ask for more details than what he’s given so far. He didn’t expect it to be now, but he also knew that he’d have to tell it to them eventually. Might as well do it now, while Arthur isn’t around. Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself for the memories to come back to his head as he explained it all.

“It wasn’t just me he imprisoned in that house. The evil of the house imprisoned…four other people. I was the fourth of the five owners, with Arthur’s brother being the fifth. Arthur wanted to control the evil of the house in the end, but he had to make sure most of the owners were released from the house in order to do so, as well as retrieving four evil artifacts.”

“And people had to die for those things to happen.” DeStorm finally put together.

“Yes. That.” He swallowed, looking towards Justine. “You, Tim, Lele and Matt…all four of you died because of what he wanted to accomplish, as well as other friends of yours. That’s why I can’t trust him. He’ll use anyone and everyone if it’ll help him get ahead. He’s no better than the Sorceress.”

Justine took a slow, deep breath, nodding. “That explains everything.” She’s still frowning, and Vincent sees the confusion in her eyes, even with the new understanding of the situation.

“I’m telling you this,” Vincent finished, “Because no matter what Arthur does, whether it’s helpful or anywhere remotely close to what he just did…do not put your complete trust in him. I tried to warn your friends once. They didn’t listen until it was too late, and most of them didn’t make it out. This time, I want to make sure _all_ of you make it out. Okay?”

The other three guests looked between each other. Vincent could only hope that they heeded this warning, this time.

He wasn’t sure if they’d get the chance for another one, moving forwards.

* * *

“How soon are they getting back?” Matt Haag paced the Lounge, a sigh escaping his lips. The Duke was a little on edge, probably from the earlier threat of being killed if the guys didn’t find the spear in time. “It’s been a while.”

“That’s true.” Calliope looked towards him, and to Lele, who shrugged.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine.” The Socialite managed. “It’s been working so far, right? All of you trying to help us survive the death challenges.”

“That is what we’re trying to do.” Calliope agreed. Joey and the others looked a bit antsy, too. Same with Mortimer, Jetpack Girl and Riley. She didn’t blame them, given how Vincent was stuck in there with not just the others in the death challenge, but also because the Sorceress and Arthur both went in there with him.

_What if they betray Vincent and kill him?_ She hoped it didn’t come to that.

That’s when Alex, DeStorm, Justine and Vincent come running in. Joey’s the first to speak up. “What happened!?”

“Where’s the Sorceress? Arthur?” Tim asks.

Alex and DeStorm exchange glances, but Justine blurts out the answer. “Arthur killed the Emperor!”

The rest of the guests burst into “What!?” and “No way!”

“It’s true.” The group turned to see Arthur walk in, arm in arm with the Sorceress. The former butler looked rather proud of himself, given the smirk on his face, the confidence emanating from his gaze as he scanned the others. “Vincent couldn’t do the job, so I had to do it for him. Besides, if you’re insistent on all of you staying alive, there’s no point in not working with you.”

Calliope looked towards Vincent, who mouthed _“I’ll explain later”_ to her, just before the Sorceress spoke up, raising a brow as she looked to the trio from the death challenge.

“I assume you got the little key?”

“Uh,” Alex quickly holds it out, “Yeah.”

“Put it in the lock!” Bretman calls, and Alex does.

All Calliope can do is keep a close eye on Arthur. At least for now.

_Why be so cooperative? What’s his real game, here? _


	9. The Black Knight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wizard must be freed, but same with a guest and a Helper. Will the party make things right, and avoid the Black Knight?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for over 400 hits on this fanfic so far! XD I really appreciate the love and support. I hope to post the next chapter before or on Halloween, but we'll see what happens. Thanks for your patience so far!

_“Who is the holiest person in the room!?”_

Everyone isn’t sure who is ‘holy’ here. After all, they _all _have their multitude of sins and other things that happened prior to being dead or while they’re still alive. But they need the ‘holiest’ of all people to kneel in front of this box to open it, and no one is really sure who qualifies for that role.

Vincent can only sigh. “Do you think Father Santos might be here? He is a priest, after all.”

“The Priest?” Arthur wrinkled his nose. “This is probably the last place he’d be other than Hell. I haven’t seen him, in all my time here.”

“Wait, Matt,” Tim looked towards Matt, “You and Sierra were in that exorcism. Maybe you’re holy?”

Matt grimaced. “I _killed _Sierra in that exorcism. I don’t think I’m exactly holy right now.”

Vincent looked towards the Sorceress. “What about you?” After all, the Sorceress did technically follow the Cursed God prior to dying.

The Sorceress groaned. “Hell no.”

Jetpack Girl has another idea. As gruesome as it is sounds, it just might work. “What about me?”

Riley stared at her. “You…the holiest?”

“Maybe the clue is literal.” Jetpack Girl offered. “Maybe it means ‘holy’ as in…_hole_…y.”

Matt and Lele (among several others) groan at the pun, but Jetpack Girl notices Calliope wince in the corner. “Maybe?”

“I have a hole in my head.” Tim offered. “At least, I bet I would given how I died. Wait.” He stared at Jetpack Girl. “You died!?”

Jetpack Girl grimaced as she recalled her death. “Briefly, yeah. Iron maiden. Wasn’t fun.”

“That would put a lot of holes in you.” Mortimer managed, and Janet groaned from the corner. “_Maybe _it could work?”

Jetpack Girl shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”

She kneeled. The box opened. _I’m guess I’m the holiest, after all._

“How saint-like,” Lele is heard muttering, and Jetpack Girl does her best not to laugh at that.

* * *

Janet is worried that Mortimer would do something stupid. Because, honestly, he probably would at some point. It’s Mortimer. Her son. She knows him better than anyone (except maybe the fellow Helpers at this point, given how long they knew him since she was dead).

But right now? They have a Knight to deal with.

And cursed chalices.

She can’t help but wonder why the hell the Collector would want to house _so many evil beings_ in exhibits. It doesn’t seem like a safe idea. But if the Collector has the power to take people from different eras, that means that she’s exceptionally powerful. Probably more powerful than the Carnival Master was.

Will this work out well at all? Sure, everyone was alive so far, and even she helped with the effort, but she had the nagging feeling that something would go wrong at some point. She just wasn’t sure what.

* * *

Tana and Gabbie get cursed chalices. Everyone else is fine. The Pinup Girl and Hollywood Star take it in stride, but Mortimer can see the worry in their eyes as they look at each other. If it’s the two of them in a death challenge, which he’s pretty sure could happen with the whole thing with the voting pile later on, then at least he knows who to protect when the time comes.

As they try to make their way to Excalibur, to defeat the Black Knight with, their enemy appears. He really is dressed in dark armor. No wonder he’s called the Black Knight, right?

But then _the Black Knight goes after them_. He gets close to Justine and Tim, but Mortimer throws himself in the way, saving them but endangering himself. As he gets grabbed, he sees Gabbie screaming from the corner of his eye and curses.

_“Gabbie!”_

_“Mortimer!” _

The guests’ screams echo as they get dragged away. _Damn it,_ Mortimer cursed as he and Gabbie both got taken away, _Why can’t the Black Knight be, I don’t know, not as strong as the Strong Man? He’s literally in heavy armor!_

The Black Knight dragged them both into a dining room, tying their arms to chairs after forcing them to sit in them. And then the Black Knight leaves, leaving both of them alone.

“Damn it.” Gabbie looked around, wriggled around in her bonds, but there was no getting out of them. “I swear, I’m gonna _kick _that knight’s ass when we get out of here.”

Mortimer can’t help but laugh. “Honestly? I’d love to see that happen.”

Before either of them can speak again, though, that’s when the Black Knight returned with a caveman. The poor guy also gets tied in a chair, but at the opposite side of the table so he faces them.

“Hey.” Mortimer looked towards the caveman, who also wriggles in his seat. “You okay?”

The caveman’s words come out as gibberish. Gabbie frowned. “I don’t think he speaks the same language as us.”

“Guess not.” But the questions race through Mortimer’s mind regardless_. How did a caveman get here? Was he just loose from another exhibit? Could he be a potential ally, if the Black Knight had to take him out of the way? _

_Maybe…he can help us?_

* * *

The others eventually find this old man, clearly imprisoned and in need of help.

“I recognize you!” The old man (his name was Merlin) pointed at the Sorceress. “You lost all your power, if I remember correctly.”

The Sorceress glares at Merlin, and Calliope stares. _They knew each other already? How?_ Did they run into each other while they were dead? Is she the reason why he’s stuck here in the first place?

Turns out there’s a Black Knight that’s killed King Arthur, took over Camelot. Riley can’t help but relate it to her own past situation; of how the Sorceress imprisoned her and took over the manor, with plans to send her army into the modern world and take it over as well, with help from the Cursed God. Riley knows that she has to help this man. Besides, they could use another ally in the long run, if he lives long enough.

Jetpack Girl, Calliope and Vincent also agree that they should help Merlin, and same goes with the other guests. Even Arthur, who seems somewhat annoyed by Merlin’s presence despite not even speaking a word to him, agrees on it. At everyone is in agreement about something, right? But they also know this: They have to find Mortimer and Gabbie, and save them.

“I knew he was going to do it.” Janet near curses, and Calliope knows she’s the only one that can stop her from running straight after Mortimer. “I knew it!”

“We’ll rescue him and Gabbie.” Calliope managed. “We just need to find out where that knight took them, and find that chant to free Merlin.”

Good news: They find the chant to free Merlin pretty fast. Tana claims that it sounds like an “Eminem” lyric, whatever this Eminem is. Calliope guesses he must be an artist from the era the guests come from. But hey, at least they have a new ally in Merlin, and Calliope won’t take him for granted.

Bad news: They now need his spellbook to find out how to defeat the Black Knight, which is back in the Egyptian Exhibit for some reason.

Calliope notices Justine freezing on the spot, and she offers her a reassuring look. “Whatever is in there won’t get all of us. Promise.” Perhaps the Adventurer is concerned about being killed by a mummy. Then again, it did go back to its coffin already, so hopefully it doesn’t just pop itself out again.

“Y-yeah.” Justine takes a deep breath, and forces herself into the exhibit as the group splits up. Vincent, Alison, and Calliope all go to get the spellbook with the one group, and The Sorceress, Riley and Jetpack Girl all go together with the other group to find Gabbie and Mortimer.

* * *

Alison hears the door slam behind her as they enter the room where the spellbook is. Candles start lighting themselves up, and that is _never_ a good sign. “Merlin!? What’s going on?”

“I have to stop these, or we’ll go up in flames!!” Merlin immediately concentrates his magic on the nearby candles. The strain in his expression reads that it can’t be easy to hold it back.

DeStorm is quick to find what’s wrong: They have to read these messages backwards and match them up to different tarot cards in order to get the crown and also not burn to death. Unlike the cards the guests’ faces are on, these represent actual tarot cards, like the Hanged Man and the Fool. Alison recognizes the pictures, but she can’t read the text. Even Vincent and Calliope struggle with reading the text. No one here is skilled in reading backwards at all.

Another candle lights up, and Alison immediately looks to the others. “Can anyone read text backwards!?”

“Let me try!” Tana called back, rushing forward. She looks down, and grins.

Turns out that Tana is _amazing _at reading things backwards. Bretman figures out where they fit, matching it all up. Joey, DeStorm, Tim and Justine are just glad that they figured it out somehow.

_Maybe they can also help in saving themselves._ That’s what Alison thinks as they head out of the exhibit, spellbook in hand. _We’ve been trying to save them, but maybe they can also help save each other? _

It’s not like the guests are stupid. They all are very smart, and talented in their own ways. None of them deserved death in the first place just because they made one error or another.

_Maybe our salvation is purely through working together. We really can’t afford to lose anyone tonight._

* * *

“Gabbie!”

“Mortimer!”

Janet untied Mortimer, relieved that he was alive, while Alex untied Gabbie. Both then paused upon hearing the noises coming from the caveman, before looking up and staring at said caveman with equally confused faces. “Uh…is that guy on our side?”

Riley can’t help but think the same question as her. It does seem odd to see a caveman in Camelot, after all.

“The Black Knight tied him up here after he captured me and Mortimer.” Gabbie explained quickly. “I think he could be helpful, guys.”

“Do you speak English?” Jetpack Girl asked the Caveman. The Caveman replied with words she can’t make out, and she grimaced. “Okay, maybe not.”

Lele looked towards the Caveman, frowning. “I don’t think he speaks Spanish.”

Matt does not look happy at that, sharing a similar expression with the Socialite. “So much for help.”

They placed the crown in the middle of the table, as instructed, and they soon found mirrors and...a map? It acted as a sort of diagram for the whole room, but there were also lines drawn across it. _How odd. _

“What is this?” Riley held up the map for the other guests to see. “A diagram?”

“Maybe it has something to do with the mirrors.” Jetpack Girl guessed, before looking to the Sorceress. “Hey, any idea what to do with this?”

The Sorceress can only shrug as if saying _“You’re on your own.”_

Green light suddenly shone into the room. Riley shrieked and ran out of the way, but then she realized it wasn’t burning a hole in the wall or anything. _So it’s not a death ray. Good. _

“Wait.” Alex picked up one of the mirrors. “Maybe this is what we have to do; copy the map.”

“Copy the…?” Riley looked down at the mirrors, then checked the map. “That could be it! Everyone, get a mirror!”

Everyone grabs a mirror, and Riley tries to direct them. They need to shine the light the way the diagram does it. Seems easy, right?

Unfortunately, it comes out as a jumbled mess at first. The light hit _her_ eyes, courtesy of Matt and Lele both shining their mirrors in the wrong directions, and then Mortimer ended up shining the light in _the Sorceress’ eyes_ by accident (she gave him a death glare for that), and, well…it wasn’t quite lining up. Riley frowned, waving the light out of her face, before taking a deep breath and climbing on top of the table.

“What are you doing?” She overheard the Sorceress mutter.

“Trying to get a bird-eye view.” Riley managed, before looking at the map. “That’s the way the map is drawn, so…”

“Good idea.” Janet barely avoided shining a light in another guest’s eyes by accident. Upon finally fixing the lights, they soon found a crystal.

“A crystal?” Mortimer picked it up. “Will this defeat the Black Knight?”

“I’m pretty sure we need Excalibur.” Jetpack Girl managed. “That’s what Merlin mentioned.”

“But what’s the crystal for, then?”

Riley tried to think of anyone that might have a deep association with Crystals, but only the Carnival Master came to mind. Okay, maybe that’s not a good person to think of. “Hopefully not for someone evil.”

“Let’s assume it’s not for someone evil.” Jetpack Girl managed, “Unless it means we use it to defeat them.”

Better to hope for something positive than negative after all, right?

That's when the Black Knight steps into the room, and everyone screams. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: The party gets a little unexpected help, and something goes disastrously wrong.


	10. A Nightmare Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A death challenge is upon the party. However, will they make it out this time, or will things take a bloody turn?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween, everyone! XD (Yes, I'm posting this a day early.) I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter!

The Black Knight storms in, and Janet immediately holds up both of the blades she used to kill Garuda earlier in the night.

“Go ahead of me.” She barked at the other guests. “I can hold him off.”

“Janet, no!” Riley’s yell echoes in her ears, but Janet’s made up her mind. She slayed Garuda. Surely she can hold off against a Black Knight.

But that’s when _the Caveman_, of all people, steps in. He roars at the Black Knight, hooting and hollering at him like a watch dog, and the Black Knight is instantly distracted.

“He’s helping us?” Lele and the others only stare as the Black Knight is led away by said Caveman.

Janet nodded, lowering both blades. “Seems so.” She looked towards the others, taking a deep breath. “We need to get back to the others, now. While he’s bought time for us.”

“Mom has a point.” Mortimer managed. “We gotta go.”

Janet can only wonder if the Caveman can survive distracting the Knight for so long. And if he does, will they ever see him again?

* * *

The two groups reunite. “We found the spellbook!”

“We found a crystal!”

Vincent doesn’t care about a crystal right now. The sight of Mortimer alive and well is enough for him to just run over to him and hug him tight. “I thought you were dead!”

“I’m not.” Mortimer croaked, before Vincent felt the other hug him as tight as he could in return. “I’m not gonna die, Vincent. I’ll try not to.”

“Good.” He still remembers seeing Jetpack Girl die back in Everlock. No one down here died in Purgatory yet, save for the Key Keepers, but he’s scared it’ll happen. He doesn’t want it to happen, especially not to Mortimer. Especially not to his friends.

“A crystal?” Merlin rushes over and sees the crystal. “Ah! The Guardian Angel Stone! That, you must save for the rainiest of days.”

“The rainiest of days?” Vincent checked through the nearby window. It wasn’t raining right now, as far as he knew. “What do you mean?”

Merlin opened his mouth to explain, but that was when the Black Knight’s voice boomed from down the hallway. “There’s nothing to stop me now!”

Many things happen at once.

The guests run off in the opposite direction from the Black Knight. Merlin holds up his wand, casting a spell, at the same time that Vincent turns and shoots at the Knight, hoping to get him in the head. The bullet hits—it sends the Black Knight reeling back slightly, but it doesn’t take him down. A newly-formed dent was visible in the man’s helmet as he straightened himself, just as he stumbled back again, hit by Merlin’s spell.

Calliope also whipped out a gun, shoots, just as Jetpack Girl, Riley, and Janet run off with the guests, soon accompanied by Arthur and the Sorceress.

“Go!” Merlin yelled. “I’ll hold him back!”

“You won’t survive against him alone!” Mortimer called, but Merlin shook his head, casting another spell, temporarily freezing the Black Knight in place.

“Go! Restore Camelot and get Excalibur!”

Vincent grabbed Mortimer’s hand. “We have to go.”

“But—“

“Mortimer,” Vincent found himself hissing, _“Please.”_

Mortimer’s gaze snapped towards him, and Vincent locked eyes with him. Mortimer gave him a quick nod, without hesitation, and let Vincent lead him further away from the threat of death currently dueling Merlin a few feet away from them.

Vincent thinks he hears the sound of pained cries, and a triumphant hiss, but he ignores it.

* * *

When everyone thinks they’ve lost track of the Black Knight and Merlin, they read the spellbook. Two people must be voted in, just like with every death challenge before them. The winner will get the tears of the Lady of the Lake, and pull Excalibur from the stone to slay the Black Knight.

As the guests deliberate who to vote in, the Sorceress looked towards Arthur. “Are you going to pull it off again?”

Arthur blinked, looked towards her. “Pull what off, exactly?”

“You saving them again like last time.”

A soft hum came from her left, and the Sorceress looked towards Calliope, who frowned.

“It would be good to have at least one person in there to distract the Black Knight after the challenge ends. We’ll need an additional person to make sure whoever is voted in is safe.”

“So at least two people. Maybe three. The Black Knight does have a horse, after all.” Jetpack Girl pointed out. “How about I go in? I can shoot the Knight or something.”

Arthur cleared his throat. Time to make a move. “I would like to go in again, actually. Ensure the guests’ safety and all.”

“You sure?” Riley’s gaze flickered towards him. “You just went in and killed the Emperor. I can take a turn.”

“I appreciate your offer,” Arthur managed looking towards her in return, “But I think it should be me.”

The Sorceress gave him a slight look. “I’d like to go in as well.”

Well, shit. _That_ wasn’t part of his plans.

“You already killed his mother.” Arthur pointed out. He needs her alive for this. “Surely you’d like to sit this out?”

“Mm…no.” The Sorceress’ look turns into a glare. “I’d like to slaughter that Knight myself.”

Calliope can only sigh. “I’ll go in with them.”

“You sure?” Alison asked Calliope. The vampire appeared concerned, and Arthur, as far as he knows, knows that the vampire worked against the Sorceress. “I can do it.”

Calliope nodded. “Just be careful.”

Alison gives her a hug. “I will.”

* * *

Alison finds the note first, after voting is done and she, Arthur and the Sorceress make it to the challenge with Gabbie and Tana. Alison knows that Gabbie and Tana were both in a challenge before, and both survived at the cost of one Outlaw losing his life.

But as they read the note, it seems like there’s a chance that both will live…as long as that green light of protection stays up. Once it goes down, it’s down.

Even worse is the fact that they only have five minutes to complete four puzzles.

Gabbie curses at “dying at geometry” before, but Tana’s working a lot faster. Alison, despite seeing how messed up this challenge is, has a feeling that maybe they can both live.

“The Knight is coming!” Arthur’s yell made Alison break out of her train of thought, and the Knight did, indeed, swoop in out of nowhere. Tana and Gabbie book it for the light. Alison makes sure the two are ahead of her, but then she trips.

She hits the ground, and looks up to see the Sorceress smirking as she makes it into the green light. At the same time, however, Arthur turns around, helps Alison up, and half-drags her into the light.

“Why?” Alison managed.

Arthur looked towards her. “Why what, Miss Alison?”

“Why are you…” _Helping me? _

Arthur doesn’t respond. As soon as the Black Knight is gone, Gabbie and Tana run back to the puzzles.

There’s only two minutes left. Only one of the puzzles is solved.

Will they make it?

* * *

Arthur knows the ladies aren’t going to make it. Not at the speed they’re going, at least.

Tana cheers as she completes a second puzzle. “I’m going to start on yours, okay!”

“Thank you!” Gabbie called back, but it’s only seconds later that the green light…fizzles out. Disappears.

_“There’s nothing protecting you now!”_

The Black Knight runs in one more time, ready for the kill. Alison screams at Gabbie and Tana to run, and even the Sorceress takes several steps back. The Black Knight’s gaze snaps towards the Sorceress, and Arthur knows that the woman is powerless to stop him without her magic, even if she does have a small knife on her (and knives will do nothing for cutting through armor).

Arthur, without a second’s hesitation, moves in front of the Sorceress…

Just in time for him to get_ stabbed_ in the chest, the blade sinking through his heart.

It hurts _worse_ than being shot by his brother when he died the first time, somehow. It sears and burns, and he feels knees buckle underneath him as the sword pulls out of him. He falls and hits the grassy ground underneath him, and he’s pretty sure he feels blood. He gasps for air,

He thinks he hears the Sorceress calling his name, and then he opens his eyes and sees her, at the same time he feels her hand over his heart. She looks worried, and he wonders if she might cry for him. Out of everyone that was with him, she was the one who cared for him. Offered to let him work with her to take over the Museum together.

Then she _smiles._ His world goes dark as he realizes that she truly never wanted to work with him at all. She just needed him for something else—and he fell for it.

* * *

“Arthur!?” Gabbie is heard yelling in surprise, and the Sorceress backs away from Arthur’s corpse, staring down at him with an expression of horror. She then stares up at the Black Knight, and snarls at him. Before she can move to stab him, however, the old wizard Merlin comes running back, trying to fight the Black Knight again.

Merlin and the Black Knight immediately get caught in fighting again, and the Sorceress screams, falling to her knees by Arthur’s corpse. She _has_ to put on the show, see. Make herself look good in front of the others and make herself look like she has _some _sort of goodness in her. Merlin and the Black Knight fight each other fiercely, but it’s clear the old wizard is losing (not that the Sorceress minds, because she’d rather have him dead).

The other guests arrive in time to see Arthur dead, the Sorceress perfectly faking her tears, and the shocked Gabbie and Tana who are still struggling to put together the puzzles.

“What’s going on!?” Joey calls, and Tana yells for help to get the puzzles back together. Everyone immediately runs to the remaining puzzles to finish as fast as they can, and finish just as the Black Knight finally stabs Merlin, killing the wizard for good.

The Sorceress pretends to wipe away tears, but in her mind she thinks _Good riddance. _Arthur and Merlin are dead. All she has to do is take the tears, and maybe some power will come back to her.

A little compartment in a rock opens up as the last puzzle is completed. Inside it is a small vial.

“That must be the Lady of the Lake’s Tears!” Calliope points out. Before the Sorceress can get it, though, Riley beats her to the vial and chugs its contents down.

_Bitch._ The Sorceress does her best to conceal her glaring at her ‘good’ half.

* * *

Riley isn’t sure why she immediately went for the Lady of the Lake’s Tears, but she’s willing to do _anything_ to protect the guests, even if it seems that Tana and Gabbie are in serious trouble due to not completing the little puzzles fast enough (_and now Arthur’s dead, too, and the blood coming from his body is enough to make her stomach curl_). She swore to get everyone out of here, and she’s sad that Merlin’s gone, but someone must make sure the Black Knight doesn’t get Excalibur. She drinks the tears.

“Ohmygod.” That’s Tim that’s shocked. _“Riley’s the King!”_

Riley looked towards the sword in the stone, before pulling it out. Excalibur shines brightly in the moonlight, and the Black Knight lets out his own cry of rage as he rushes at her.

“Riley!” Jetpack Girl rushes forward to assist her, but Riley looks towards Jetpack Girl after barely blocking the Black Knight’s first attack.

“It’s okay!” Riley yelled back. “I got this!”

She feels a power she never felt before in _her entire life._ She’s _Riley, King of Britannia_, and she is not letting the Black Knight take her friends away!

The guests and her fellow friends cheer as Riley stabs the Black Knight straight through, and she pulls out the sword as she sees the Black Knight fall. She takes out the key, holding it up, and her friends cheer even more.

“All hail King Riley!” Bretman’s heard cheering, and Riley can’t help but smile a bit. _King Riley? That’s pretty cool. _

Riley pushes the sword back into the rock. She’s the only one that can grab it, she’s aware. No one else can knock it out of her hands this way and, they can’t use it if it’s still stuck in there. Jetpack Girl seems to understand her logic as she grabs the key, before giving her a kiss on the cheek. “That was amazing.”

Riley blushed, offering her a smile. “Thanks.”

The blush vanishes as she realizes that Arthur is dead and truly gone.

* * *

The guests book it back to the Lounge, excitedly chattering about “King Riley” and so on, with Gabbie and Tana hugging it out and grateful to survive the challenge together for a second time, even if they couldn’t complete it on their own.

“I’m so proud of you,” Jetpack Girl tells Riley, before they both kiss. The guests go “aww” at the sight, and both women blush at the attention.

As the guests make it into the lounge, all of them collapsing on the nearest chair, couch, etc. to rest for a moment. It soon also dawns on the group about the following: Arthur is dead, and same with Merlin. Two people (one somewhat evil if not fully, the other definitely on the good side) died for them.

“Where did he go?” Lele can’t help but ask. “If he’s gone…”

“He’s in Hell, right?” Gabbie pointed out. “The letter said we’d go to Hell if we…”

Jetpack Girl, still having an arm around Riley, holds her close.

The Sorceress sits on the couch, head in her hands. “He’s gone.” She muttered. Her voice sounded forlorn, for once. “If the Collectors, I swear I’ll rip her eyes out.”

Some of the guests offer the Sorceress some words of condolences over Arthur, having noticed how she and him seemed to click quite a bit over the night so far, but the Sorceress doesn’t really respond.

As the guests chatter about what could happen next, Vincent gently pulls Mortimer aside. “Mortimer?”

Mortimer looks towards his boyfriend. “Yeah?”

“It’s about Arthur.” Vincent kept his voice low as he looked him in the eyes. “I think he might…still be here.”

“What?” Mortimer stared at him. “What do you mean? He died. He’s probably in Hell by now like Gabbie said!”

Vincent shook his head. “Before we left, I…checked his body. He looked like he had the _soul _taken out of him.” Vincent gestured towards everyone with a hand. “Most of us here are already dead, save for us that invaded this place, and I know there’s that note from the Armageddon Clock that warned about us going to Hell if we didn’t make it out before sunrise, but…” He shook his head. “I don’t think Arthur is fully gone. I don’t know why.”

“The note we found behind the painting said that those that die in the death challenge enter a final death with no return.” Mortimer pointed out, swallowing. “I know we’ve had resurrections before, but I don’t know if that’s possible down here. It said ‘no return,’ after all.”

Vincent closed his eyes, then opened them. “Okay.” He finally whispered. “I’ll let it go.”

He wasn’t sure if he fully could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter: The Gorgon is coming, and an attempt at protection from it doesn't end well.


	11. Stone-Faced

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things take a turn for the worse, and Mortimer is caught in the crossfire. Thankfully, there is hope.

Joey found a note after they put the newest key into the Vault’s lock, and Riley was the first to read it.

_“The Gorgon is coming.”_

_That’s it?_ Riley stared at the note. _Just a warning?_

That was never good. It took her back to memories of the Twin Dolls of Everlock chasing them, and she shuddered, thinking of them. She really hoped it wouldn’t be like…

And _that_ was when the Gorgon stepped into the room, snarling at the group. Her eyes and everything about her looked absolutely hideous. Snakes protruded from her head where hair should have been, and Riley vaguely remembered hearing tales about the Gorgon, about how they should never look her in the eyes.

“Run!"

* * *

_Go!”_ Mortimer knew he had to get the guests all out of here, just as the Gorgon slammed the Sorceress’ head against the wall, knocking her out. Riley and Jetpack Girl were already on the way to assist the guests, and Mortimer turned his head to see if the Gorgon was gaining on them.

He knew, looking into the Gorgon’s face, that he made a mistake at once.

He tried to open his mouth to scream, to plead, but nothing came out. His hand, extended ahead of him as a way to protect himself, started turning grey.

He couldn’t run.

He couldn’t look away.

_Is this it? Is this how I die? _

Did Vincent see the Gorgon? He hoped not. He hoped Vincent got away with the others, and same with his mom. He didn’t want his mom dying again, or anyone else dying again or becoming stone like him. He swore to go through with this to the end.

He just didn’t think his end would come so soon.

_Please…everyone…**survive**…_

And then everything in his sight went dark.

* * *

Janet heard the doors slam behind her, only for Vincent to try to open them. Alison grabbed him by the arm, trying to restrain him.

“Mortimer!” Vincent struggled against Alison’s grip. “Mortimer’s still out there! We have to get back to him!”

Janet’s world froze at once as she realized that her own son was still out there. He’d yelled at everyone to run, right? _Is he…?_

Her son did not deserve death. She prayed and hoped that he wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be. He was a fighter. A survivor. _He doesn’t deserve this!_

_And you _ran_ when he told you to._ Her demons haunted her. _You should’ve stayed back to help him._

“It’s too dangerous to go out there,” Alison warned Vincent, but Vincent shook his head.

“I have to get out there! Please!”

“Same with me.” Janet blurted out, and Alison looked to her, stunned by her sudden interjection. “That’s _my son _out there, and I swear if he’s not okay…”

Alison didn’t stop Janet from busting the door open again, before rushing to the lounge. She sensed Vincent following at her heels, and she knew that he had to be just as worried about Mortimer as she was. Vincent was Mortimer’s boyfriend, after all. An odd man, but certainly good-intentioned, given everything she knew of him and saw him do.

And then Janet saw her son, stopping in her tracks.

One hand stretched towards nowhere, his mouth open in a silent scream. The greyness of his entire body indicated that he was stone.

“Mortimer?” She swallowed, took a step towards him, but it was Vincent that let out a choked gasp, rushing over to him. He wrapped his arms around Mortimer tight, sniffling, before letting out a wordless wail.

Janet sank to her knees.

_He swore to get me out of here. I never wanted him to die! _

She screamed, too, her voice mingling with Vincent’s own.

* * *

Calliope cursed under her breath as she heard Vincent’s wail, joined by Janet’s sobbing, just before she caught up to the sight of Vincent sobbing over Mortimer’s stony form, Janet on her knees on the ground. DeStorm ran up to Janet to help her up, and Calliope vaguely recalled overhearing DeStorm mention that he had a son waiting for him at home, while Alex went straight to Vincent to check on him (She vaguely recalled Alison letting her know earlier that Alex had a girlfriend that died first at the Victorian mansion). The other guests shared looks of horror and sadness, and even Lele and Matt were speechless.

_First we’ve lost Merlin and Arthur. But now we’ve lost Mortimer, too._

Calliope knew Mortimer for a while, during her time trapped in Everlock while waiting for the guests to arrive. They hadn’t talked much since before the fateful night when they saved everyone, but Mortimer was kind. He was good. She’d been glad that out of everyone in Everlock, that he was among those that survived the night. The two, as well as Jetpack Girl, Riley, Vincent, Jael and Ryu (and more recently Dylan) all lived together in that one Victorian Mansion now.

And now…

Now he was stone. And Calliope wasn’t sure if they could bring him back like they did with Jetpack Girl.

“There has to be a way.” Calliope looked towards Vincent, who looked her in the eyes. His own gaze blurred with reddened eyes, anger, grief and fear all at once as he spoke. “There has to be a way to bring him back!”

“Vincent,” Calliope swallowed, “I don’t know if there is—”

_“Bullshit!”_ All the guests jumped. Vincent's voice cracked, but he persisted. Even some of the generally cooler and collected ones like DeStorm looked pretty shocked. “We found one out with Joanne back in Everlock, and with Jael and Ryu too. There _has_ to be a way for _him!”_

The Sorceress managed to get up herself, staring at Mortimer’s statue form with her own form of fascination, perhaps horror. “I will gouge her eyes out for this.” She spoke, looking towards Vincent. _“Mark my words.”_

Vincent looked towards her, briefly, then shook his head, burying his face in his hands as he leaned against one of the nearby couches for support. Riley went over to see if he was okay, but Vincent just pulled her into a wordless, tight hug, still sniffling.

“Wait.” It was Gabbie that spoke up, and everyone turned towards the Hollywood Star. “Maybe this is what Merlin meant when we got the Guardian Angel Stone. He said to use it on the ‘rainiest of days,’ right? This could be it! We could get help with this!”

Joey quickly fished out the Guardian Angel Stone for the others to see. “But how…?”

“Maybe there’s a place to put it, or something…?”

It’s Lele that finds the place to put it, and they place the Guardian Angel Stone there.

* * *

Dylan isn’t sure what to think. He, Nikita, Matpat, Jael and Ryu have been waiting for hours, hoping the others are okay. They don’t know if anyone is dead yet. Hopefully not.

And that’s when a portal opens.

“What the…!?” Nikita started, standing from where she is, but Ryu quickly speaks up.

“Go in there, _now!_ They must’ve found the Guardian Angel Stone to open up another portal!”

“What!?”

“Go!” Jael yelled.

Matpat and Nikita run in there. Dylan gets to his feet, trying to catch up…

And he misses it entirely, tripping over his feet and hitting the ground.

The portal closes. Dylan punches the ground once, just before he sensed Jael and Ryu kneel by his side.

“You okay?” Jael asked. Her face is wracked with worry.

Dylan nodded, let her and Ryu help him up. “I’m okay. I just…I just wanted to get in there…”

“I know you want to help.” Jael swallowed. “I know you do. But…it is dangerous in there.”

He glared at her. “I survived werewolves. I survived my dad turning into one.”

Jael swallowed. “It’s worse than that. Trust me.”

Dylan frowned. There was something about her words that seemed off. “Have you been in there before?”

Jael went quiet. Dylan noticed Ryu flinch, just before Jael shook her head.

“I haven’t. But _my sister has.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter: Matt and Nikita join the party, and Calliope confronts someone from the past.


	12. Died With The Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Calliope confronts the past. It doesn't end well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a really short chapter (and solely for Calliope's point of view), but I hope you all enjoy reading this one! Don't worry—I promise the next one will be longer. XD

“Matt!” Joey was heard gasping, joy infecting the tone as two figures appear before the group’s eyes. “Nikita!”

Nikita couldn’t help but grin as Matt walked over to stand with her. “We’re back, bitches.”

Several of the guests let out joyous cheers, bumrushing the two to give them hugs. Calliope can’t help but smile; Matpat and Nikita were two of the fiercest fighters, out of all the guests she met back in Everlock. It’s nice to see that they made it here to help, after all. All the guests chatter excitedly about no one being dead yet, but then Matt Haag somewhat ruins it by mentioning that Mortimer got turned to stone. And the fact that Arthur got killed doesn't get ignored, either.

She remembers Jael, Ryu and Dylan, and she pulls Matpat aside after he’s hugged most people if not everyone.

“Matpat?” Calliope looked him in the eye. “Is Dylan…is he okay?”

“Dylan?” Matpat repeated, before nodding. “Yeah, he’s fine. He’s still with Jael and Ryu. I think he tried to make it through the portal, but I don’t think he did.”

“And they’re safe, too?”

Another nod. “Yeah. They’re worried about you, but they’re okay.” The Detective informed her. He took a deep breath, then sighed, looking towards Mortimer’s statue form. “I’m sorry to hear about Mortimer.”

Calliope nodded grimly. “Thank you.” That was all she could say right now. She was just glad Matpat and Nikita were here. At least they still had more help. She just hoped they didn’t get any fates as bad as Merlin and Mortimer did.

“Come on, guys, hurry up!” Nikita called. “We don’t have a lot of time!”

* * *

Turns out that there _was_ a mirror shield they could use against the Gorgon, and the group found it rather fast. Calliope suspected it might be too easy, so she volunteered to use the shield.

She knew this Gorgon well, because this Gorgon was _Jael’s sister._ A young woman named Cassidy.

Calliope didn’t know the full details from Jael, but what she did know was that Jael’s sister went straight into the Museum of the Dead to destroy something wicked. She never made it back, and she was considered dead.

But Calliope earlier caught a glimpse of her face, back when they first entered Purgatory. She knew now that Cassidy was alive, and also the Gorgon they had to face, now. This was not going to be a fun reunion.

Calliope crept past the stone statues, making sure the Gorgon didn’t spot her. Her grip on the shield stayed tight, and she took a deep breath as she called her name.

“Cassidy!”

The Gorgon turned, eyes wide. Calliope held up the shield so the Gorgon would look into the mirrored shield. She remembered seeing what the Gorgon looked like; snake head and all, with scaly skin that might be worse than the Snake Woman back in Everlock. What would Jael say, Calliope wonderd, if she told her about finding her sister here?

_Turn to stone,_ Calliope hoped. It would be a better fate for Cassidy than being torn apart later by herself and the others. She didn’t want that fight to happen.

The hope of the Gorgon turning to stone died as Calliope heard Cassidy laugh in response.

“You actually thought that was_ true_, Calliope?” She heard her sneer. “You always went head-first into any situation, _never_ thinking it all through beforehand. That shield you hold is a _myth.”_

Calliope swallowed. She didn’t want to look her in the eyes, but then she heard a roar behind her and she turned—

Just in time for the Minotaur to scoop her up in his arms and sling her over his back. She didn’t have time to react, the Minotaur swinging her with such force that she lost grip of her shield, and she heard the mirror part of it smash apart as it hit the stone ground.

Calliope screamed, fists beating against the Minotaur’s back, but his grip was _tight. _She wondered, briefly, if this was how Joanne experienced being taken away by the Strong Man in Everlock—stuck in his grip with nowhere else to go but imprisonment.

Damn it, she was doing her best to get out, kicking, screaming and punching. She tried to reach for a knife, attached to her belt, but as she did so, the Gorgon noticed and rushed over, wrenching the knife out of her hands. The knife hit the floor with a loud clatter, and Calliope glared at the Gorgon, though avoided meeting gazes with hers.

“Cassidy, why? You can work with us instead. Did the Collector…?”

Cassidy did not stare her in the eyes, keeping her gaze hidden. She went silent for a moment, and Calliope thought that maybe, just maybe, Cassidy would consider this. Help them, instead of harm them.

Calliope’s hopes were shattered as a snarl escaped the Gorgon’s lips.

“Minotaur, _take her to the Maze.”_

Calliope could do nothing but yell after the Gorgon.

“Cassidy! _Please!”_

The Gorgon did not dignify her with a response as she was taken away, and all hopes of their former ally helping her died with the silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: If Jael’s sister/The Gorgon wasn’t given a name in-canon, I would choose “Judtih” for her name due to it being a J-name like Jael, and also because it holds Biblical significance. While Jael murdered the enemy Sisera for Israel, Judith beguiled (seduced?) the enemy leader Holofernes, then hacked off his head as he lay in a drunken stupor. Also, Judith was apparently a great theologian.


	13. Honour Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janet is determined to not let Mortimer's fighting spirit die with him, and Vincent and Riley try to keep the faith. Meanwhile, Calliope makes amends, and Alison helps finish up a puzzle (with some mildly awkward results).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers! I hope you all enjoy reading this fic so far, and welcome to the new chapter!
> 
> Just before we begin—to answer a comment last chapter about why I didn't change the Gorgon's name to Judith; when I previously wrote up last chapter, this chapter, and even the chapter after this one, I previously saw on the Escape The Night wiki that the Gorgon's real name was Cassidy so I went with calling her Cassidy. But now I'm wondering if I should switch it to Judith, because I don't see the name Cassidy on the wiki anymore... Should I:
> 
> A. Keep it as Cassidy, because continuity?  
B. Change it to Judith and just edit the last chapter and next chapter to fit that change as well?  
C. Keep that first chapter as Cassidy, just change this chapter and next chapter to Judith and add in a note explaining the name change next chapter? 
> 
> Please feel free to comment the option you prefer. Whichever option gets the most votes by next week's chapter will be the one I go through with! Thanks!

“Ms. Wilson? You gonna be okay?”

DeStorm had opted to go to the Minotaur’s Maze, and Janet was grateful that he was talking with her while waiting his turn to go into the maze (Nikita went first, and Bretman and Joey were also there as well as Alex, Tim, DeStorm and Gabbie). Riley, the Sorceress and Janet went with this group to get to the Maze, while the other helpers went to the Gorgon’s hideout.

“I’ll be okay. I think. I don’t know.” Janet tried not to think of her son, still a stone statue in the Lounge. Would he ever get back to normal? Was it permanent? She hoped it _wasn’t_, but…she wasn’t sure about that, either.

“Maybe there is a way to bring him back.” Gabbie pointed out. “Jetpack Girl got resurrected at Everlock, right?”

“I was dead at the time, so I don’t know how that worked.” Janet explained.

Riley let out a soft hum, pushing a few straggly strands of hair out of her face, messed up from the earlier chaos of running and hiding from the Gorgon. “In Everlock, we found this Harp of Lazarus. We strummed it three times and said the name of who we wanted to bring back.”

“Do you think...” Alex paused, looked towards Joey. “Do you know if there might be a second harp?”

“A second harp?” Joey looked towards him. The Savant had been pretty quiet most of the time up until now, and he arched a brow. “Jael never told me anything about a second harp here in Purgatory. Riley, do you know anything?”

Riley shook her head. “No—”

Nikita’s scream came through the maze. Bretman jumped a bit, before rushing into the entrance. “Sis, I’m coming!”

“Bretman—!” Janet turned to face the Playboy, but he already went in. She shook her head, before looking towards Destorm and the others. “Next time someone gets captured, I’m going in.”

“I volunteer.” Janet looked to her right, realizing that Joey was the one that spoke up. “It’s my fault we’re all in this situation in the first place. I came here to save them.”

“You shouldn’t put it all on yourself,” Janet snapped, but then she bit her lip briefly as she saw Joey wince. As far as she knew from the other Helpers and her son, Joey seemed to be in the middle of all the events that led to his friends being dead in the first place, Everlock included, but she didn’t know how they were all connected. But it still seemed unfair for him to put it all on himself otherwise. She sighed, shook her head, and then looked him in the eye. “I mean…look, I don’t know how _exactly _all of this ties to you other than you and the Sorceress knowing each other and all of your friends coincidentally being at events where you were present and you were one of the few survivors, but I’m more than sure that it’s not entirely your fault.”

“But—” The Savant started, but she glared at him.

“No. Buts.” Her tone reminded her a bit of how she’d scolded her own son when he was younger, after catching him doing some mischief with his friends in town, but it shook a little in all the rest of the words that rushed past her lips. “My son died to get all of you out of here. He’s a fighter, and I’m _not _letting his fighting spirit die with him. Protecting all of you is the best way I can honour him. At least, right now.”

That was when Bretman screamed from within the maze, signaling being caught, and Janet immediately made a beeline for the entrance. Joey did, too, but she beat him, tripping him right before he could make it inside the maze.

“Hey!”

Janet did her best to block out Joey’s yell. She had people to save, riddles to solve, and she wasn’t about to let anything stop her so easily.

* * *

Justine was with Lele, Matpat, Matt (hooo boy, both Matts just happened to be in this group!) and, of course, Tana. Vincent, Alison and Jetpack Girl decided to stick with this group investigating the statues.

“Vincent?” Vincent looked up to see Lele touch his shoulder. “Sorry about Mortimer.”

Vincent shrugged. “It’s not your fault. I should have made sure he was safe.”

“But then we might have lost both of you and that would suck.” Lele looked around, seeing the others being distracted with searching for the correct items to put on the statues, before looking towards Vincent again. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. “That whole conversation about resurrection earlier…did that actually happen? Back in Everlock?”

He nodded. “It did. That’s why I think it could happen again here, but I don’t know for sure.” Vincent swallowed, his mind revisiting Jetpack Girl’s final screams in the Maiden of Madness. “One of us…Joanne, she ended up sacrificing her life to save the others back in Everlock. We managed to bring her back with this item called the Lazarus Harp we found.”

“Maybe there’s some version of that down here, then.” Lele managed, after searching a nearby bush for any items. “We could still have a chance. Heck, Oli and Tim both survived a death challenge before, back at the dinner party.”

He stared. “They did?” That was new information. He’d been stuck in the one room in his straitjacket the whole night, so he didn’t know everything that happened before they found him.

“Yeah. Ringmaster _forgot_ to put flesh-eating fish in the tanks they got dumped in.” A soft laugh escaped her. “Sure, that’s lucky of them, but…as far as I’ve seen so far, I think anything’s possible. I think we’ll find a way to bring him back.”

A way to bring him back? For sure? He knew that it wasn’t for sure that it could be possible. He did want Mortimer back (and Vincent was more than sure that the others and Mortimer’s mom certainly wanted him back, too). But if it _could_ happen…

Vincent couldn’t help but crack a smile at that. “Lele. Thank you.”

She gave him a pat on the arm. “No problem. Let’s just get back to searching.”

* * *

Bretman’s scream came through, and before Joey could make a break for the maze entrance, Janet immediately tripped him. The Savant hit the dirt, before looking up to see the former mayor dash into the maze. “Hey!”

Riley could only sigh as Janet disappear into the maze. “There’s no stopping her now.”

She had good hopes for Janet to complete the whole puzzle in that maze. Parts of it surely had to be already done, right? Nikita finished one bit, Bretman got a bit more, and…well, hopefully there wasn’t much left to do. Hopefully, Nikita, Bretman and Calliope were fine in there.

The Sorceress hadn’t done much since coming with them, and as much as Riley wanted to tell her to actually do something, she also didn’t want to piss her off and have her go around killing everyone (especially since she still seemed a bit broken up about losing Arthur, for some reason).

That was when Janet’s screams could be heard.

_“Seriously!? THAT IS NOT FAIR! LET ME GO, YOU BRUTE!”_

Joey groaned, shaking his head. Riley couldn’t help but wince. And she was so sure about going in there and not letting the fighting spirit die.

“I’m going in,” Joey managed, and before Riley could stop him, Joey already ran into the Maze. She could only hope that things would be okay. Hopefully, everyone else captured so far was unharmed. She wasn’t sure what she would do if she lost more of her friends.

* * *

Calliope felt the worry in her escalate as she realized Nikita and Bretman had went in after her and got captured, but she couldn’t help but stare a bit as Janet got lugged into the area where all the captured people were.

“You went…after me?”

“Yes.” The former mayor hissed as she struggled with her bindings. “Happy?”

“I appreciate it.” And she did. Nikita and Bretman were also quiet, unsure of what to say, and as Janet looked down at herself, and then towards Calliope, she spoke again.

“I’m sorry.” The words came out of the former mayor’s words. “I’m sorry for not…believing you, back in Everlock. For making you some pariah.”

Calliope frowned, seeing the dejected look in the other’s expression. “You were influenced by the Carnival Master. You had no control over what you were doing.”

“Even before he got a hold of me, I still didn’t believe you. I should have believed you then.” Janet shrugged. “Maybe I wouldn’t have died in the first place and all.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. We can’t go back to the past now.”Calliope looked towards Nikita and Bretman, and then towards Janet, looking her in the eye. “What matters is that we move forward. And, I do forgive you.”

Nikita and Bretman looked at each other as if they wanted to say “Whaaaat!?”

However, before anyone else could speak, Joey came running in, gasping. “I found you!”

“Joey!” Calliope looked towards him. “What are you..?”

“I came to rescue you!” He then gave Janet a look. “I would’ve went in earlier if she didn’t trip me!”

Calliope almost dropped her jaw at that. “You…?”

Janet let a sheepish chuckle escaped her. “Guilty as charged. I kind of…got a bit overenthusiastic about not letting Mortimer’s fighting spirit die with him and all.”

That suddenly made a lot of sense. Calliope vaguely remembered Mortimer telling her, in the past, telling her how much Janet was a fighter. _Like mother, like son._

“I’ll help make sure it doesn’t die, too.” Calliope finally managed. “I promise.”

Janet smiled back at her. “Thank you.”

Despite everything, despite Joey later choosing to put his own name into the voting pile for the later death challenge, Calliope couldn’t help but smile a little.

* * *

“I found clothes!” Matt tried draping the ‘clothes’ on the one nude statue, completing it, and Alison did her best to help. “Is that okay?”

Alison could only shrug a little. Despite her and Matt’s best efforts, the statue didn’t look quite fully clothed, given that the clothes were rags at this point, but hey, at least it wasn’t nude anymore. “I think it’s fine enough.”

“There are two pedestals left.” Lele pointed out. “But they’re completely empty.”

Alison went over to read one of the two. “Kiss of the Jeweled Lover…?”

It looked like the other statue just needed someone to pose with a sword. Good news: They already had a sword! Justine grabbed it, before moving onto the pedestal and striking a pose.

“Now,” Alison looked around, “Does anyone want to reenact the kiss of the Jeweled lover?”

Matpat took a step back. “Maybe I shouldn’t do this one.”

Lele looked towards him. “I thought you’re supposed to be the guardian angel!”

“Lele, I’m married.”

Lele looked towards Jetpack Girl, who shrugged. “He is. And before you ask me, me and Riley are a thing.”

Matt looked around awkwardly. “Is there_ anyone_ that is single here?”

Alison awkwardly raised her hand. “I guess I’ll have to do it, then. Anyone else?”

Everyone else looked towards the newly-single Vincent, who looked unamused at this. “If we do find a way to bring back Mortimer, _don’t_ tell him that this happened. Alright?”

Alison figured, as she and Vincent climbed onto the pedestal, that she’d just give him a kiss on the hand. As a vampire princess who was currently dead, she wasn’t sure if her instincts would kick in to drink anyone’s blood. That hadn’t been the case so far, but she wasn’t about to take a risk by kissing him on the cheek (which was close enough to his neck) and then end up biting him there fatally afterwards.

It worked. They found a piece of the medallion they needed. All they needed to do was get back to the others.

All Alison could hope was that their next attempt to save the guests from a grisly fate wouldn’t end as badly as the last one.


	14. An Unexpected Save

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alison and Jetpack Girl go with the guests chosen for the Maze Challenge, but things get a bit tricky. However, someone unexpectedly steps up to try to save them all.

It was already dark outside, given how it was the middle of the night, but now it became stormy. All the guests and Helpers huddled together to try to keep warm and not get blown away. Even the Sorceress felt like she might get blown away if she wasn’t careful, feeling the feathers of her dress rustle wildly in the wind during the vote.

This was how it would work, this time: Two people were voted in, but each would choose a ‘guardian angel’ to assist them. The guests voted in had to build a Parthenon, but the guardian angel had to navigate the maze and find all the pieces for them. The loser would, of course, die.

At least, that was how it was supposed to go. She was more than sure that the Helpers would willingly volunteer themselves to go in and die for the guests instead (just like how Arthur did, in a way). So the Sorceress shuffled the cards.

“The Duke.”

“What?” Matt’s jaw dropped. _“Seriously?”_

The Sorceress ignored him and drew the next card. “The Aviator.”

Alex was just as shocked. Both guests did not look amused at being voted into the challenge.

“I’ll go in with them.” Alison offered. The Vampire princess held her hands together as she looked towards Jetpack Girl. “Do you want to go in with me?”

Jetpack Girl nodded. “Sounds good. We can do it.”

“I can go in,” Vincent started, but Alison shook her head.

“I think…you and Janet should stay out here for sure. Keep the others safe. Okay?”

Vincent hesitated, but eventually nodded. The Sorceress wondered how Vincent could be so…spineless, at times. He wasn’t going to speak up and let others give him a chance to prove himself? Was he nothing without Mortimer by his side?

The Sorceress never trusted him. Maybe, in the future, she’d find a good chance to get rid of him. Especially while he was this vulnerable.

* * *

Matt chose Matpat to help him, while Alex got Nikita. Alison watched the groups get to work, before looking towards Jetpack Girl. “So this is it?”

“What?” The blonde looked towards her, blinking. “What is it?”

“The whole challenge. Building a Parthenon.” Alison pointed out. “I thought there might be more to it.”

“Well, we have to make sure the Minotaur doesn’t outright kill anyone.” Jetpack Girl stretched her arms a bit. “I know you got your fangs, but can they cut through a Minotaur?”

“I’ve only bitten humans. And other vampires.” Alison frowned, thinking back to when she killed the one vampire to save the guests, back in the Victorian mansion. “I don’t think a Minotaur is one I can just bite to death, even if I aimed for the jugular.”

Matpat and Nikita are here, Alison reasoned. They likely got trained in some level of combat like Calliope. Maybe they can be the distraction for the…

“I won?” Alex stared at his completed Parthenon. “I won!”

“Matt!?” Matt’s scream cut Alison out of her thoughts, and she looked to see white light shining around Matpat, who looked both panicked and confused as Matt Haag looked towards him, horror in his gaze.

Matpat tried to open his mouth to speak, probably to call out a warning or ask what the hell was going on, but then he was gone.

“Matt!?” Matt H. looked around, hoping to see if Matpat just reappeared somewhere, but there was no reappearing. “Matt! _No!” _

_The magic,_ Alison realized. _It’s gone immediately if you lose the death challenge._

There was no time to worry about Matpat as the last piece of the medallion appeared, moments later. The Minotaur stomped into the clearing, roaring, and the Duke screamed in horror. Alison immediately did the best thing she could think of—launch herself onto the Minotaur’s bac and pull on its horns to distract him. The Minotaur roared, trying to shake her off, but that was when Jetpack Girl shot at the Minotaur, hitting it in the chest. The Minotaur was unfazed, but he did set his sights on Jetpack Girl, charging towards her, Nikita, Alex and Matt.

Jetpack Girl pushed the three out of the way, before throwing herself out of the way. Alison hung on tight to the Minotaur’s back, trying to pull on his horns, but the rampaging monster wasn’t paying attention to her. It rammed itself into oen of the maze’s leafy walls, and Alison almost lost grip of him upon impact.

She still held on, and with what little breath remained in her at the moment, she yelled to the others.

“Run!"

* * *

Matpat appeared, hitting the leafy ground with a groan. Dylan looked up to see him, running to him.

“Matpat?” Dylan thought it was a weird name for him, but hey, that’s what everyone else called him. “Are you okay?”

Matpat tried to open his mouth, but he could only curse, punching the ground. “Damn it.” He whispered, choking out a sob. “Damn it!”

“What happened?” Dylan’s voice got to him, and the Detective-turned-SAE member looked towards the teen, swallowing.

“Th-there was a challenge. I had to help Matt Haag fight, and…we lost. I don’t know…does the magic…” Matpat shook his head again, and he looked towards Ryu and Jael. “Does the magic automatically die off if we lose a challenge?”

“I didn’t think it would die off so fast.” Jael grimaced. “It’s likely the magic of Purgatory has a stronger hold than I thought. I know it’s only temporary.”

“What!?”

“I don’t know how long Nikita will last in there.” Jael shook her head, burying her head in her hands. “This is my fault. I should’ve…”

Ryu held Jael’s shoulder, rubbing it gently. “She’s a fighter. I’m sure she’ll be okay and just get back here like he did. Hopefully not through losing a challenge.”

_“Damn it,”_ Matpat repeated again, and Dylan felt his heart sink.

* * *

“We can’t leave without you!” Nikita was heard yelling, but Jetpack Girl pushed her towards the exit.

“Get out of here! Me and Alison will handle this, just get out of here!”

Nikita paused, but Matt shook his head, running for the exit. “You heard her! Run!”

Alex and Nikita reluctantly booked it for the exit as Alison tried to get better footing on the Minotaur, as well as grip. Jetpack Girl pointed her gun at the Minotaur again, but she wasn’t sure if she could shoot. She didn’t want to shoot Alison by accident, and she wasn’t sure how much harm it would even do to the Minotaur at this point.

“Alex! Nikita!” Jetpack Girl heard Matt scream in the background. “Pass me the medallion piece!”

“What!?” Alex was heard yelling, only for Matt to hiss.

“Just give it to me _now!”_

The Minotaur bucked Alison off its back as it turned, sending her straight into Joanne. She didn’t have a chance to dodge, both women hitting the ground with a groan. Alison tried to climb off her, but that was when Jetpack Girl realized that the gun she had on her went flying out of her hands after previously making impact. She looked to her left, seeing it, but before she could run over, the Minotaur barged over, stomping on it and crushing it.

“No!” That was her _best_ gun; the gun she used to ward off Prometheans, temporarily stun Cedric, to kill a Killer Clown—and it was gone. She was weaponless.

“Joanne,” She heard Alison groan, staggering to her feet, “Run.”

Jetpack Girl put a hand on her shoulder, looking towards her. “You have to run, too! We can’t handle this guy by ourselves!”

The Minotaur turned towards the two women, roaring, but as it took a menacing step towards them, someone else had something to say.

“MINOTAUR! _STOP!”_

The Minotaur paused. Jetpack Girl looked past the Minotaur to see _Matt Haag_ hold up the Minotaur’s Pendant, gasping for breath. A fierce look overtook his gaze, jaw strained a bit as he glared at the hulking beast. Joanne noticed Alex and Nikita high-fiving each other a few paces behind Matt,

“Kill the Gorgon,” Matt continued, “And bring me her key!”

The Minotaur let out a roar, but turned around, starting to walk out of the Maze.

“It’s working!” Alex cheered. “We did it!”

Matt offered Alex a reassuring high five, but then glared at Nikita. “Next time, don’t mess with a challenge like that? At least one of us could’ve been dead!”

Nikita could only sigh, flipping one of her pigtails. “One of us had to win. That’s how we all survived back in Everlock.”

“Matt has a point, though.” Alison swallowed as the Minotaur left their sight. “We need to stick together. Let’s not screw each other’s chances of surviving any further.”

“Well…okay.” Nikita nodded once, before looking to Alex and the others. “We should get going.”

The group began filing their way out of the maze, but Matt hung back a bit. Jetpack Girl noticed, slowing her pace to match his.

“Matt?”

He looked up at her. “Yeah?”

“Thanks. For saving us.” Jetpack Girl offered him a smile. Matt stared at her, but then swallowed, looking down.

“Y-you’re welcome.”

She patted his shoulder a bit. “You okay?”

“It’s just, um…” Matt looked up, then looked around. “You haven’t seen Sierra, have you? Before you found us?”

“Sierra?”

“Yeah. Sierra. She was…um,” He swallowed again, and Jetpack Girl thought his eyes started reddening, “She was stuck in the house with me and my friends. We got into a death challenge together…a fucked up exorcism.” A hoarse chuckle escaped him. “I didn’t read a note all the way through, I thought there was a time limit, so I just shoved this rosary over her neck, and…she died.”

Jetpack Girl went quiet, letting that process. She could almost imagine it; Matt rereading the note as Sierra lay there dead, the cross and beads around her neck. She shook the vision out of her mind as Matt ran a hand through his hair.

“It could’ve been me dying in that challenge instead. I _had_ the choice to put it over my own neck, but I didn’t realize it because I didn’t read the note. It’s my fault she’s dead.”

Jetpack Girl put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey. Hey, Matt? Stay with me. Breathe.”

Matt slowly inhaled, then exhaled, nodding a bit. She met his gaze, both of them stopping in their tracks before she spoke again.

“What happened back there—it’s not your fault, okay? You two shouldn’t have been in that house, or in those death challenges, and none of you deserved to die.”

“She would’ve had a better chance to live if I—”

“It’s not your fault. And I haven’t seen Sierra, but maybe she’s here like you are in some way. Maybe we just need to find her. But whatever happens, I am getting you and your friends out of here. Okay?”

Matt went silent, closed his mouth. His gaze, however, remained on Jetpack Girl’s own, and a sigh soon escaped him. “Okay. I…thanks.”

Jetpack Girl thought she saw him smile, just a bit, and she smiled back at him.

Maybe there was hope in this messed up situation of life and death. They just had to find it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter! Thank you for the love and support you've given this fic so far.
> 
> Just to let all of you know, I will be taking time off from updating this fic from now until the end of December, due to winter holidays (like Christmas) and also due to focusing on other fics to write, post and/or update during December. New chapters will resume in January 2020 unless I announce otherwise on my Tumblr, Twitter and/or Facebook pages (or I might post a temporary chapter here to indicate any changes to this plan). Thank you for your patience, and I hope to see you all in the New Year!


	15. On Their Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party must free a genie. What could possibly go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year, everyone! XD I hope you enjoy reading this first new chapter of 2020.

The guests were thrilled to see Matt and Alex return, but that was when Joey noticed the one missing person first.

“What…” The Savant’s face flashed with fear, almost paling immediately. “Where’s Matpat?”

“He vanished after the challenge loss.” Matt looked down at the medallion in his hands, and then up at Joey. “I don’t know where he went, or what’s going on with him. We…had to save our own lives, first.”

“Matt saved the day.” Alex pointed out, grinning, and Matt looked a bit startled. “He helped put together the medallion to stop the Minotaur from killing us all!”

A scattering of “What!?” and “really!?” came from some of the guests. DeStorm gave Matt a nod of acknowledgement, and Lele looked a little surprised at the outcome, as well as Tim.

Joey looked towards Nikita, still focused on Matpat’s disappearance. “Nikita, can you sense him? What’s going on?”

“His magic faded immediately after the challenge.” Nikita looked down at her own hands, jaw clenching, and then up at the others. “I can feel my magic fading, too. I don’t know how long it’ll hold.”

“So you’ll be kicked out of Purgatory like him, when it runs out?” Tim asked.

“Yeah. I just don’t know when.” For once, the usually-confident Nikita seemed forlorn.

Calliope grimaced at absorbing all this information, but tried not to let it show on her face. _We lost a lot of people already. Arthur died against the Black Knight. Merlin also died. Mortimer’s gone because of Cassidy’s actions. Matpat’s kicked out of Purgatory from losing the challenge but _at least_ he lives…and who knows how much longer Nikita will last?_

And on top of that, she realized, Jael’s sister Cassidy was dead. Neck snapped by the Minotaur after Matt ordered him to kill the Gorgon, as far as Jetpack Girl and Alison told her. She didn’t blame them for needing to do what they did at the time, to get the next Key and also save themselves, but Jael was _not _going to be happy when she heard the truth about her sister.

_I thought I could save her, persuade her to work with us instead. And I failed._

“Calliope?” Calliope looked up to see Riley, placing a hand in hers. “Are you okay? You look really worried.”

Calliope tried to smile, but couldn’t. “I was hoping I wasn’t showing it. I’m just concerned, given our dwindling numbers.”

“Has anyone seen the caveman guy from earlier?” Gabbie suddenly asked, and Calliope looked towards her, staring.

“A caveman?”

“Yeah.” Gabbie looked towards her, nodding once. “You weren’t there, but there was this caveman from some exhibit. He got captured along with me and Mortimer by the Black Knight, but then he distracted the Knight and helped us escape.”

“And you haven’t seen him since?”

“I haven’t.”

“I see.” _So, like Merlin, he must also be one of the better people within this accursed place. _“I haven’t seen him, but I’ll keep a look out for him. Perhaps he still lives.”

Better to offer that bit of hope than assume him dead.

* * *

They soon found the next clue of where to go, and after some searching, they found the destination.

The Arabian Exhibit.

Dancers flocked around the group, putting on a show with colourful scarves and fans galore. Riley had to admit that they were all very, very pretty. She was not the only one admiring them, though, as Alex also had his eyes set on them.

“I think I’m in _love,”_ Riley overheard Alex murmur, only for Nikita and DeStorm to groan at said statement.

“The last time I got involved with pretty girls,” DeStorm managed, looking to Nikita, “I almost died. Think I learned my lesson.”

Tana gave him a look. “And me and Gabbie had to save your asses.”

Nikita nearly laughed at that. Riley decided that the lesson was something to keep in mind for right now, and she looked towards Jetpack Girl, who looked honestly confused.

“Why doesn’t any of them have, I don’t know, weapons?”

“Maybe they’re harmless?” Tim suggested, before chuckling. “They’re way hotter than Madison, though.”

Jetpack Girl turned to stare at Tim. “Who’s Madison?”

The Con Man shrugged. “Mermaid back in the house. We had to get this doll for her to set her free.”

Matt groaned, burying his face in a hand. “And I _died_ for it.”

“Oh, right. Sorry, man.”

That was when Riley noticed a woman step onto the stage, speaking of stories, even pointing out Bretman to participate in a new play of hers.

_This must be Scheherezade._ Riley realized. She seemed benevolent in appearance, at first glance, if only slightly creepy-looking, but something seemed off about all of this. Usually they’d be in danger after entering a new area, but this seemed almost too peaceful.

_What’s really going on?_

“And then…we feast!”

“Feast?” Joey was heard asking, but that was when several of the dancers ripped the scarves off their faces, revealing rotted mouths and sharp teeth.

* * *

First it was a mummy. Then a bird. Then a knight, then a Minotaur.

Now? Cannibalistic thieves, apparently.

“Run! _Run!”_ Jetpack Girl yelled to the group, but the thieves were fast. One of them grabbed her by the arms, dragging her away before she could even run, and she spotted Riley screaming and struggling from the corner of her eye.

“Joanne!”

“Riley!”

Vincent tried to make a break for both of them, as well as Janet (Calliope and the Sorceress were both interested in escaping and/or helping the guests get to safety), but both got caught. And they weren’t the only ones caught, either; even Nikita, who punched one of the thieves in the face and spouted curses left and right, got dragged off. No one escaped, except for the Sorceress, who somehow disappeared in the chaos.

The guests and Helpers both were dragged to a large tent, tied back-to-back against the tent poles.

“Help!” Alex yelled from one pole as he got tied, but Jetpack Girl had no clue if anyone would come to help.

_Is this it? Is this the end?_ She struggled with her bonds. If she had her gun right now, she’d blast all the thieves into oblivion. _We can’t give up now!_

* * *

Fate was on their side. Vincent didn’t expect a man called Sinbad to run in and rescue everyone, but he did. All the guests and Helpers got out safely, giving their thanks, but then they all looked away as Sinbad made out with Fatima, his true love.

It made Vincent miss Mortimer. He wished he was here.

But he also knew he couldn’t just focus on Mortimer. He had to focus on their current mission; getting the Ebony Horse hidden in the Kebab tent, and also get a coin to get the Hammer’s location.

Vincent and Calliope went with Nikita and Bretman to get the horse. Alex, Riley and Sinbad would distract the dancers working for Scheherezade, and the rest would stay back and figure out the puzzle to get the coin. Given the large amount of guests, it wasn’t the best idea to have everyone completely split up…just in case.

“Have you ever eaten falafel?” Calliope asked Vincent, who shook his head.

“Never have. Never heard of it.”

Bretman and Nikita basically had to eat a whole bunch of these…falafels, that would get spicier and spicier. And if they couldn’t do it, their name would go into the voting pile.

“Eugh, I’m dying Nikita!” Bretman was heard groaning as he swallowed a third one.

“The last thing you can do is die _ugly!”_ Nikita’s response makes Calliope nearly laugh, and Vincent almost laughs with her.

For a moment, he could forget that he lost the man he loved. For a moment, it was just Nikita and Bretman struggling to eat spicy food while Calliope and Vincent got to hang out with each other. No cannibalistic thieves, no Schehezarade, no danger.

It faded after the task was over, and after they obtained the Ebony Horse.

Now, it was time to get back to the others, and find the Hammer of Sulemain before it was too late.


	16. I Volunteer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Puzzle-solving ensues, and someone unexpectedly volunteers for a death challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost at 800 views for this chapter! Can we make it past that before the next one? Perhaps...XD Thank you for all the love and support you've given so far!

“Was Ma’Ruf stabbed?”

One knock.

Jetpack Girl grimaced. “That’s not right.”

Alison examined the tools lying in the room around her. The puzzle here was to find out how this “Ma’Ruf” was murdered, through using yes or no questions. One knock meant it was incorrect, and two knocks were correct. It reminded her of that jar puzzle some of the guests discussed in the Egyptian Exhibit.

“What about a frying pan?” Lele asks, and there is only one knock.

_Three questions left,_ Alison mused. She found a noose, and picked it up, clearing her throat before asking. “Hung?”

_Two knocks._ The party burst into cheers, and the vampire princess couldn’t help but smile slightly. At least there were two more guesses now to figure out the rest, right?

“But what about the other items? Where was he killed?” Tim asked.

Alison examined the remaining objects. “If our friend here was hung, that means the other items here probably are attributed to locations. The frying pan could be a kitchen, the knife could be from the same place…”

“What if it’s a kitchen?” Matt asked.

“Let’s try a kitchen.” Janet agreed. “Seems to make the most sense.”

“Is it a kitchen?”

…_One_ knock. The rest of the party groaned or went “great job, Matt” in the most sarcastic tone possible.

“We only have one guess left, and then someone has to put their name in.” DeStorm pointed out. “And if it’s not a kitchen, maybe there’s more items?”

“I found a book!” Gabbie called from the corner. “Maybe it’s a library?”

“Are there any other items?” Alison looked around, but there were none. “Try the library, Gabbie!”

“Is it a library?”

Two knocks. The whole group burst into cheers as the ring appeared.

* * *

Riley wasn’t sure how long she could keep running. Alex got caught once by the dancers, but she and Sinbad freed him fast. Looking around, she saw the others emerge from the tents.

“Guys! Come over!” Alison called. “We got the ring!”

“We got the horse!” Calliope also called, and Riley gestured for Alex to follow her—

Only for the two to be caught in their tracks by a man. She recognized him from among the dancers, as someone who worked for Scheherezade—and she didn’t like the sword he had in his hands. Now she wished she had Excalibur.

Before she could yell at Alex to run, Sinbad came charging in, yelling, and caught the man offguard. Both of their swords clashed, but soon Sinbad stabbed the other—moments after that man had stabbed him.

“Guess that’s what I get for writing my own story, huh…?” Sinbad breathed, before he collapsed.

Fatima came running to his fallen body, screaming and sobbing. Riley couldn’t help but look away, at first. She knew what that pain was like. She looked towards the woman, pausing, but then she approached her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Fatima jumped a bit at her touch, her tearful gaze snapping towards her, and then Riley spoke.

“I’m…sorry about your love.”

Fatima sniffled a bit, but she looked towards Riley’s hand on her shoulder, before moving to slowly stand, just after kissing Sinbad’s forehead.

“Thank you.” Fatima whispered. She paused, before looking towards Vincent. “He’s lost someone before, too, hasn’t he?”

“Uh…” Riley looked towards Vincent, who wasn’t looking in their direction. “Yeah. It was pretty recent.”

Fatima nodded, and Riley started speaking again when Fatima suddenly spoke.

“I hope your story,” Fatima managed, “Ends better than mine.”

Riley could only smile a little a her, swallowing. “I’ll try. We’ll try.”

She wouldn’t notice the fire in Fatima’s eyes as she moved to rejoin the others.

* * *

Joey took the ring and raised it to the sky. Lo and behold, the Hammer of Sulemain appeared.

But that was when Scheherezade went over and grabbed it, just before Calliope could do so.

“Bitch,” Calliope hissed at her, but the wicked storyteller could only laugh, flipping her hair.

“If you want the Hammer so badly, your story will end with tragedy.” She simpered. “Choose two of you complete my story, and do it quickly!”

All the guests exchanged awkward glances. No one wanted to go into this challenge and die, obviously. As the guests hurriedly discussed with each other, Calliope looked towards her remaining fellow Helpers, before pulling them aside.

“Do you think two of us should go in?” Jetpack Girl asked, scratching the back of her head. “I volunteer to do the challenge, but I don’t have a weapon on me anymore.”

Vincent checked his gun, then shook his head. “Ran out of ammo.”

“I could rip her throat open.” Alison offered. “I doubt she’s immune to vampire fangs.”

“You just went in.” Calliope reminded her. “You and Joanne both. I can go in if necessary.”

“I can go.” Vincent offered, but Calliope shook her head. She saw his brows furrow. “Why not? You know I’ve done a challenge before.”

“We all have. And you’re still grieving.” Calliope looked him straight in the eye. “Can you honestly say that you’re thinking with your head right now, and not your heart?”

Vincent swallowed, went silent. But before he could answer, she heard Joey’s voice ring loud and clear.

_“I volunteer!”_


	17. A Happy Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The death challenge ensues, Joey volunteers, but it ends in a most unexpected way...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of this chapter, this fic has over 800 hits! Thank you to everyone for the love and support!
> 
> I hope all of you enjoy reading this chapter! XD

_“I volunteer!”_

All the Helpers turned to see Joey, staring.

“Joey?” Alison finally managed, out of all of them. “Are you…sure, about this?”

“I haven’t participated in a challenge, yet.” Joey looked down at his feet for a moment, and then up at the group. “And I came here to save all my friends. It’s not fair that all of them should have to suffer through challenges and I don’t. Also, some of us already fought a lot of challenges. Same with you.”

“We can’t always guarantee safety.” Alison heard Calliope speak. She saw Jetpack Girl’s jaw clench, and Alison vaguely remembered hearing about her die. Alison remembered her own death, at that moment, and she shook her head a little to rid herself of that memory. Hell, they barely even survived the previous Minotaur challenge, had Matt not stepped in in time to stop the Minotaur from killing her and Jetpack Girl a second time each. Arthur and Mortimer were both already dead, tonight.

Safety definitely couldn’t be guaranteed if Joey lost. Especially given how much higher the stakes were, tonight.

“I trust you can find a way. I know you can.” Joey managed. He took a deep, nodding once. “If anything happens to me, take care of my friends. Okay?”

* * *

The Helpers had no choice but to let Joey participate in the challenge. He just refused to let up on not volunteering, so they just let him go for it. They decided, instead, that they would all be on stand-by once one of the two lost (Bretman somehow got voted in).

The challenge consisted of this: They had to basically fill in the blanks of the story Schehezerade made up. Whoever got the most votes from their friends, for having the _worst_ story, would die.

The first line was this: _"A very poor fisherman cast his net and was very surprised to pull up ___"_

Joey quickly held up his item, a golden lamp. “The most _magical_ lamp, lost at sea for thousand of years, imprisoned by Poseidon himself.”

Riley found herself paying attention to the story. Sure, she knew it was a death challenge, and she probably shouldn’t be thinking about the challenge itself save for saving people, but a nice story was always pleasant to hear. Sounded like a good start.

Bretman held up his item. “A big pot, _handcrafted _by the Genie himself.”

Some of the guests “oooed” at that. Riley tried to gauge the other guests’ reactions. Some seemed more interested in Joey’s story, while others were persuaded by Bretman already.

The second line was as follows: _"A Genie emerged, enraged at being imprisoned. The Fisherman, to no avail, tired to appease the Genie with ___"_

Joey held up his next item. “With a ram staff. Known to appease many Genie's in history!”

Riley wasn’t sure what a Genie would do with a staff, save for maybe shepherding rams, but it could work.

“Fishes.” Bretman held up a whole bunch of fish. “GMO free.”

_What?_ Riley blinked. “What…are GMOs?”

Alison shrugged. “I have no clue.”

Vincent looked just as confused. Same with Calliope and Janet.

Nikita sighed. “I keep forgetting you guys aren’t from twenty-nineteen.”

The third line of the story was as follows: _"The Genie tried to kill the fisherman, but he tricked the Genie using ___"_

Joey immediately held out a bunch of rope, proclaiming, “Some _sexy rope_, he was into some kinky stuff, and the Genie loved to be tied up!”

Several groans and/or laughs escaped the others at that. Riley stared. How the heck did people find getting tied-up _sexy?_

Bretman only huffed, before holding up his item. “This _silk_, hunny. Made by the finest silkworms in China. Handpicked by the emperor himself.”

Scheharazade then asked them to vote on whose story was the worst. The group seemed ultimately divided, some persuaded by Joey’s sexy rope bit while the others voted on Bretman due to it “making more sense,” but ultimately, Bretman had more votes for the worst story.

Which meant he lost.

“Fatima~?” Schehezerade cooed, a toothy grin appearing on her face. “Write the loser’s name down, will you?”

Riley’s gaze snapped towards where the blanked lines were listed, and she saw none other than Fatima. Her throat closed up at that, realizing that after she and the others left Fatima, she must’ve gotten captured by Schehezerade. She swallowed, feeling her hands ball into fists as Fatima swallowed, looked at the feather pen in her hands, before she took a deep breath, raising the pen.

“Fatima, no!” Riley shouted, but Fatima seemed to ignore her. Riley was more than ready to run over, tackle her down and knock the pen out of her hands…

And that was when she saw Fatima write down _Schehezerade’s own name._

"YOU WROTE MY NAME?!" Schehezerade screeched, just before the other dancers and thieves surrounded her. “What have you done!?”

Fatima threw the pen aside, tearful glare in her own eyes as she faced the Storyteller. “That’s for killing _my true love_, bitch!”

Several of the guests cheered as Fatima quickly pulled Joey and Bretman from the stage, just as the dancers and thieves began stabbing Schehezerade to death.

“Fatima!” Riley ran over to her first. Relief swept through her as she saw Fatima wipe her tears with a hand, seeing the faint smile on her face. “You did it!”

“You tried to help me and Sinbad.” Fatima managed. Her eyes, still reddened, did not take away from the smile on her face. “I couldn’t let you lose your friends.”

A lot of the guests offered Fatima words of “thank you!’ and “you’re the baddest bitch,” whatever that meant, but now the party had the hammer, ready to escape Arabia.

“Come with us.” Riley offered her her hand. “I…we’re all trying to escape this place. Defeat the Collector. You could come with us!”

Fatima looked down at Riley’s hand, then up at her. “Are you sure?” Her voice cracked a little. “I don’t know what I can do.”

“You helped save us from Schehezerade. You can—”

“Nikita!?” Joey’s sudden scream made Riley and Fatima turn their attention towards the SAE member in question—just in time to see sparkling light around her.

* * *

“Nikita!?” Janet’s jaw dropped. First Matpat disappeared, now… “What the _hell_ is going on?”

Nikita looked down at her hands, then up at the others. “It’s the magic. It’s going. I can’t stay!” She called back. “Survive, guys!”

“What!?” Some of the guests broke into begging Nikita to try to stay, but it seemed like there was no use.

_“Survive!”_ That was all Nikita could get out, before she disappeared entirely.

Janet stared at the spot where Nikita once was. First Matpat, now Nikita…

“I’ll join you.” She turned to see Fatima from earlier speaking. “Let me join you, please. I want to help you. And maybe…” She looked down at herself, before looking up at the others, “Maybe we can find a new happy ending.”

Some of the guests immediately swarmed her, rejoicing, and Janet could only grin as she saw Fatima jump a little in surprise, before eventually letting the guests hug her as thanks. Sure, Nikita and Matpat might not be around in Purgatory, but Fatima just joined the party. Janet a feeling that this one wouldn’t be gone too soon.

* * *

Dylan saw Nikita reappear before his eyes. She looked unharmed as far as he could tell, which was good, but she looked a little surprised, given the odd gaze she had in her eyes.

“Nikita?” Dylan heard Ryu ask. “What happened?”

Nikita took a deep breath, looking up at him, Matpat, Jael and Dylan, before speaking.

“I think they have a chance.”

“For what?” Dylan found himself asking.

“To survive. I think they have a chance.”

Dylan could only assume that was good news. He just hoped everyone else made it back out of Purgatory. Time was, after all, ticking.

* * *

The genie was freed, and he gratefully gave them the key he had with him all this time.

“As for your wish…” The Genie paused, before finishing, “I know better than to leave it open-ended, now. I can bring one of your friends back from the dead.”

A gasp escaped Vincent at that. Some of the other guests let out variations of “What!?” “No way!” and “seriously!?”

“We can bring Mortimer back.” Joey breathed, and Vincent looked towards him.

“Would you?” Vincent asked. He then paused, then looked towards Fatima. Sure, he’d lost Mortimer, but she also lost her love. “What about you…? Do you…”

Fatima looked towards Vincent, silent for a moment. She took about fifteen seconds, her eyes shifting towards herself, then him, and then she spoke again.

“I know I’ll miss him. But I know he’ll rest in peace. Go get your love back.”

Vincent couldn’t get anything out other than a “thank you.”

Joey offered him a grin, before moving to whisper in the Genie’s ear.

Vincent closed his eyes, and hoped that Mortimer would be back. Wished for him.

Hopefully, Mortimer would come back to all of them.


	18. Is The Pirate's Life For Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fatima joins the party, Mortimer makes his return, but everyone has little time to rejoice before entering pirate-related shenanigans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone for reading so far! At this point, we have about 850 views on this fic, and I really appreciate the love and support!
> 
> Just want to let everyone know that I now have a posting schedule established for my fics and book reviews, so feel free to check it out here: https://mysticalauthoress.tumblr.com/postingschedule
> 
> For this fic in particular, I'll be posting new chapters every Monday and Friday (or Saturday if I can't get it up on time for Friday) until completion!

Mortimer woke up. Looked around the lounge. Stared. He heard the clashing of fighting, and none of the guests and/or his friends were around.

What was going on? Where was everyone? Vincent? His mom?

That was when he heard a click behind him, and Mortimer swallowed as he heard a foul voice speak.

“Hands up where I can see ‘em. And no funny business.”

* * *

Fatima admitted that she did not know anyone very well, and didn’t know much about them other than saving their lives less than an hour ago. She stuck close to Riley, who she soon learned was lovers with “Jetpack Girl,” also known as “Joanne.” She did not understand how “Joanne” lived without being called by a name, and instead by a title. Also, she didn’t know what jetpacks were. She’d have to ask later.

She did know, however, that the other man with them, Vincent, had a lover named Mortimer, lost Mortimer earlier tonight, and anxiously awaited the return of Mortimer. She noticed him looking around, hoping to get a glimpse of him as they and the rest of the large group with them walked through the museum. Fatima recalled being told that the rest of the group was on a mission to escape this museum and get back to “the real world,” whatever that meant for them.

But first, it seemed like there were a few things to sort out.

“Where were you?” Jetpack Girl glared at the Sorceress, who emerged from hiding earlier after the group left Arabia and got back to the main museum area. Fatima noted the black, feathery dress the Sorceress wore. Something about her didn’t seem right. She reminded Fatima of Schehezerade, and she did her best to stop herself from frowning as she listened to Jetpack Girl speak, hearing her voice pick up volume. “You were nowhere to be found!”

“I had to _hide.”_ The Sorceress spat back, “From those cannibals. Do you honestly think I’d want to be eaten alive?”

“You could have _helped_ us.” She sighed, shaking her head. “Geez, I get that you want your powers back and the fact that you don’t want to be eaten alive is all fine and good, but at least do something _useful.”_

“And killing the Pharaoh’s wife wasn’t?”

Jetpack Girl glared at her. “You know what I mean.”

Fatima had a feeling she probably shouldn’t be on either Jetpack Girl or the Sorceress’ bad sides. Surveying the rest of the group, she knew this: The ‘guests’ seemed like nice people, Riley was definitely nice, Vincent was grieving from losing Mortimer, and Janet (Mortimer’s mom) was in a similar state. Jetpack Girl was in love with Riley, Alison was a vampire (so like the cannibals but not as bloodthirsty at the moment, it seemed?), Calliope and Fatima herself…also lost the one she loved less than a few hours ago.

And now they all had to work together, to get out of this museum, or else absolutely everything and everyone that was outside their exhibit would turn to dust by sunrise.

Fatima would be happy for the Sorceress to turn to dust right now. That was all she knew. Everyone else, however, seemed like overall nice people to be around (even if they were on edge from earlier events that happened to them tonight). However, they weren’t going to get anywhere with this bickering.

Calliope seemed to sense the same thing as Fatima, clearing her throat. “Enough of this. We should—”

That was when two people busted in. One was a woman, with wild hair, tan skin, holding a knife to the other person’s throat. The other person was—

“Mortimer!” Vincent’s scream made Fatima turn her head to see Vincent run towards Mortimer and the other woman, but then Vincent suddenly faltered as Mortimer spoke.

“Vince—wait—” Mortimer choked, right before the woman holding him spoke.

“Back off!” The woman shouted, still holding the knife to Mortimer’s throat. Her glare cut into several of the shocked guests’ faces. “I swear to God, _I’ll cut his throat_ if you get closer!”

“No!” Vincent was the first to yell back. “Don’t! We’ll do anything, just let him go!”

“You mean it?”

“Yes.” Vincent gritted his teeth, swallowed, then looked right back at the woman, trying to keep his facial expression neutral this time. The rest of the guests and Helpers were silent, knowing that if they made a move, the lady might just cut Mortimer’s throat anyway. “Please. He’s with me and the others.”

“One of you?” The woman frowned, and scanned everyone else. “Are you with Rorik?”

Everyone immediately shook their heads and mentioned variations of “no” or “Who’s Rorik?”

The woman relaxed her shoulders a bit, lowering the knife from Mortimer’s throat slightly, but then she held up her other hand. “Say it: I swear, on a pirate’s boat, if I change my word, I’ll cut his throat!”

_A swear?_ Fatima stared. _An oath?_

Vincent faltered, frowning, but then raised his own free hand, before speaking. “I swear, on a pirate’s boat…if I change my word, I’ll cut his throat.”

Fatima had a feeling that this situation was only going to get crazier from here.

* * *

The woman let Mortimer go, pushing him towards Vincent. Vincent caught Mortimer in his arms, and a whimper escaped Mortimer as he hugged him. “Vincent…”

“It’s okay.” Vincent whispered, holding Mortimer close_. Joey…he wished for Mortimer to come back. It worked_. “It’s okay. We got you _back,_ it’s okay. I’m not letting you die again on me. I promise.”

Mortimer straightened himself with Vincent’s help, and Vincent heard Mortimer whisper an “okay.” He still looked shaken, given the spaced-out look in his eyes, but he was definitely alive. He was here.

And Vincent was very, very thankful for that right now.

“Mortimer!” Janet ran towards Vincent and Mortimer, and Vincent let Mortimer let go of him so he could go embrace his mom. As mother and son hugged, all the other guests and Helpers went up to go hug Mortimer or at least greet him with a “welcome back” or a variation of it. As soon as Joey was done welcoming Mortimer back himself, Vincent pulled Joey aside.

“Thank you.” Vincent whispered to Joey. The Savant blinked, surprised, but then he grinned.

“You’re welcome, Vincent.” There was something in Joey’s eyes that Vincent could not interpret, a dimming within them. Maybe he was just tired of seeing people die. Vincent didn’t blame him for feeling that way.

* * *

Janet was glad that Mortimer was back. Her son was back.

First, she died.

Then, him.

Now…both of them were here. Right now.

And whoever the hell tried to kill her son next would have to go through her first.

The pirate woman who previously threatened her son, Jezebel, gave the group a quick breakdown on Rorik. He and her were essentially competing to get this treasure. And among the treasure was, well, a key. Everyone immediately pointed out that they needed the key to get back home, so Jezebel struck a bargain; help her out, and they could keep said key.

However, the way Jezebel described Rorik as _handsome _and all had Janet thinking that maybe the two just broke up. And breakups were never not messy. She just hoped Rorik and his crew didn’t catch up with them, first.

“Have this ring.” Jezebel gave it to Mortimer, who stared at it.

“Erm…thanks?”

Vincent stared at the ring awkwardly, then up at Mortimer. “What does this…mean? Is it just an alliance thing, or…?”

Janet just hoped Mortimer wasn’t getting married to pirates. That would be awkward. Was that even a _thing_ among pirates?

Well, only one way to find out.


	19. Of Free Jewelry and Pirate Chases

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pirate-related shenanigans ensue, including: Trying not to die, getting more free jewelry, lining up skulls while being chased by pirates, and a sneak attack to free some captured friends.

Riley knows Fatima wants to be useful to the group. After all, she just joined, and sure, she saved everyone from being killed by cannibal thieves just earlier, but she can see the yearning hunger in Fatima’s eyes to do more, especially as they make their way into the Caribbean Exhibit.

Alex found a tiny skull, but it was Fatima that pointed out a place where the skull fit perfectly. Taking the skull from Alex, she placed the skull there.

Sure enough, a hole opens.

Fatima stared into the hole, then looked towards Riley. “Should I stick my hand in?”

“I don’t know.” Riley swallowed. “Something doesn’t seem right.”

“Maybe it’s another clue.” Alison suggested. “It could work.”

Riley looked towards the vampire princess, frowning. “But what if it’s a trap?”

“I don’t see any other clues otherwise.” Alison managed, trying to keep her face stoic. “We have to try.”

“Alison has a point.” Riley’s gaze looked towards Fatima, reaching her hand into the hole. She paused, then a gasp escaped her, trying to tug her arm out. “Help!”

“What!?”

“I can’t get it out!” A shriek escaped the dancer as she tried to tug her arm out. Calliope ran over, trying to help her tug it out, but a head shaking from her immediately had some of the guests looking around for anything that might help.

“The only way I see it,” Jezebel stepped forward, taking out her sword, “Is if we cut her hand out!”

“That should be plan B!” Mortimer protested. Riley looked around, but soon found a note.

“Everyone, wait! We have to find a way soon or else…we all get _poisoned?” That’s not helpful!_

All the guests immediately broke into swears and/or screams, but Riley did her best to shush them. According to the note, all they had to do was “balance things out.” A bag fell, and she had a bad feeling that was the timer. Too many bags, and the gas would activate.

The first scale that had to be balanced had a note that said “Points the ship.”

“A compass!” Lele pointed out, and they placed down a compass.

The next was “Save the thumb.” Riley quickly found a thimble.

Next: “Stops the grog.”

“What’s a grog!?” Tim yelled.

“You don’t know what grog is!?” Jezebel hissed back. “It’s alcohol!”

“What stops alcohol?” Alison mused, before finding a cork. “Found it!”

One more to go. A bag fell, almost hitting Jetpack Girl in the head, but Riley heaved a sigh as her girlfriend stepped out of the way in time.

_“Holds a shirt_ is the last clue!” Matt called. “I think it’s a button!”

Justine found a button, quickly placing it in the scale. The bags stopped falling.

And things were about to get even weirder.

* * *

Fatima learned two things:

One: Getting your arm stuck in random, trap-laced holes in walls was a bad idea.

Two: Getting your arm stuck in a random hole can…get you free jewelry once freed?

“We have matching rings.” Mortimer noted, just as Fatima examined her now-freed arm, the group moving together outside to Pirates Bay.

Fatima looked up at the now-very-alive Mortimer, then to her ring again. “What do you think it means?”

“I dunno.” Mortimer grimaced. “Last time something like this happened, me and my friends all got cursed. And then we had to do a death challenge?”

“A death challenge?” She still could hear Schehezarade’s dying screams in her ears. She’d never killed anyone before, but in the heat of the moment, she couldn’t just let an innocent person die, and she was still angry from Sinbad’s death at the time (and in a way, she still was). “Is it anything like the Story Challenge?”

“It was different. A race, actually.” Mortimer swallowed, looking around as if making sure no one else would hear, then looked towards her again. “All of us made it out, though. And…hey, erm,” He swallowed. “I know we literally just met less than an hour ago, and _thank you_ for helping everyone so far while I was dead, but if we both end up in a death challenge together, I promise I’m gonna make sure you get out. Okay?”

Fatima took a deep breath, staring back at him. “That seems like a very big promise.”

“You saved everyone else.” Mortimer chuckled slightly, scratched the back of his head. “I gotta repay the favour somehow.”

She looked towards the other guests, then to Mortimer again. “They’re good people. They don’t deserve to die. And I think you’re a good person, too.”

Mortimer went silent, biting his lower lip, but just as he was about to speak, the cries of the guests alerted them to their oncoming foes—more pirates. Not Jezebel included, of course, given how she was working with them, but there were others. One man, dark-haired, vaguely handsome and directing orders, must be Rorik.

Fatima and Mortimer didn’t hesitate—they ran, yelling at the other guests to run ahead of them.

But that was when Mortimer tripped.

“Mortimer!” Vincent turned on his heel to run back, but Mortimer yelled back at him.

“Run! I’ll catch up!’

Vincent faltered. “I _cannot_ lose you—!”

“Go! I promise, I’ll be okay!”

Fatima, however, also ran back to grab Mortimer, helping him to his feet. “Come on.” She whispered. “We have to—”

The sound of something clicking behind her made her freeze.

“Hands up or your friend gets hurt.” It had to be the pirate leader. Fatima heard Mortimer curse as she raised her hands up. _Rorik was his name, wasn’t it?_ “Tie her and him up! Now!”

* * *

“Into the boat! Into the boat! Go!”

“It won’t fit all of us—”

“Hide, then! Scatter!”

The yells and screams of guests and Helpers alike made Alison’s head spin just a bit. The task seemed simple; place five skulls in a line on each deck located in the bay.

Unfortunately, it would be much simpler if the skulls _weren’t_ in the water and if the pirates weren’t chasing them in a different boat. In the boat with her was none other than Calliope, Jetpack Girl, Vincent and Alison. Riley stayed on land with the guests to make sure they were hidden, the Sorceress disappeared somewhere, and Mortimer and Fatima were captured.

Which meant Alison and the others had to row their boat, hope they didn’t get captured, and line up all the things before it was too late. It was easy to reach the first of the two decks, but then the second one…didn’t look quite right.

“Is it lined up?” Alison asked, pointing at the dock.

“I don’t know.” Vincent groaned, then scooped a bucket of water to fling the contents at the pirates chasing them. He shook his head, scooping up another bucket of water from the lake, and Alison noticed him grit his teeth. “I swear, if they _hurt_ Mortimer just after he got back to us…”

“What are you scumbags doing!?” The group could hear Rorick yelling at the pirates chasing them, from land. “Capture them! Row your damn boat!”

“Keep throwing water at them.” Jetpack Girl quickly whispered to Vincent, before looking towards Alison. “I think it looks pretty straight.”

“It’s crooked.” Calliope sighed, shaking her head. “We need to row back.”

The blonde facepalmed, groaning. “Seriously!?”

“It’s not in a straight line!” Calliope insisted, glaring at her. “We have to row back!”

“Fine, fine! Row, everybody!”

Alison could only hope that they didn’t screw things up any more from here. The good news was, it was easily fixable and they got another piece of the map.

* * *

Fatima struggled with the chains holding her. She knew she couldn’t get out and same with Mortimer, and she wished there was a way to just slip out of them. As she looked around, she frowned. One pirate was guarding over her and Mortimer to make sure they didn’t escape (not like they could as is, anyway), but there were also other objects around. One of them being…

“A puzzle?”

“Huh?” Mortimer looked towards Fatima. “Did you find something?”

“Yes. I think—"

_“Shut your mouths!”_ The two jumped, turning to see said pirate glaring at them. Fatima noticed Lele and Matt hiding in the bushes nearby, perhaps trying to see what was going on. “When the captain captures your friends, we’re gonna walk you off the plank! And _you,”_ She looked towards Mortimer, pointing her sword at his neck, “We’re gonna send you to the bottom of the lake, foot chained to anchor!”

“What?” Mortimer’s jaw dropped. He looked borderline offended, if anything, which seemed strange for a man who just got back to life, but perhaps he was still bitter about how he died the first time around. “Why can’t _I _walk the plank!?”

That was when a loud “AAAAAAA” was heard from behind them. The pirate, Fatima and Mortimer all turned to see the eight other guests screaming and running at them, as if about to commit murder…

And then they stopped in their tracks, just in time for Fatima to hear glass shatter against someone’s head and a body hitting the ground. Fatima turned on her heels to see Lele holding a now-shattered glass bottle in her hand, grinning triumphantly. Matt, meanwhile, just caught up to her, sighing.

“We didn’t even signal.” Matt groaned, but Lele could only shrug.

“At least we got the job done.”

“Wait, what?” Fatima looked between all ten guests. “You planned this?”

“Do a giant distraction to catch that pirate off guard, yeah.” Alex grinned ear to ear. “You’re welcome!”

Mortimer and Fatima were both thankful they could 1. Get free and 2. Finish this puzzle they found. Turns out, it was a three-number combination. However, with the minds of ten guests and two Helpers combined, they found it in very little time: 1, 2 and 7.

Out of the puzzle came a treasure map piece, and bit more hope that dealing with the pirates would be over soon.

All they had to do was reunite with the others, put the treasure map pieces together, get what they needed, and run before Rorik and the others caught up with them.

For some reason, Fatima had a feeling that this wasn’t going to be as easy as it sounded.


	20. A Betrayal And A Challenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party is betrayed, and a new challenge awaits them. Calliope thinks of one of the craziest ideas to save them all.

The other Helpers just made it to land when the guests and the two now-freed friends came running. Vincent was the first to embrace Mortimer and give him a quick kiss, just before Rorik and his gang came running at them. Some of the pirates were still in their boat from earlier chasing the Helpers lining up skulls, but that was when Jezebel noticed the cannon nearby, lighting it. It soon fired, making the pirates fall out of their boat and into the water below.

“Jezebel!” Janet noticed Rorik running at Jezebel, sword raised. “Behind you!”

Jezebel whirled around, taking her sword out just in time to block Rorik’s first attack. The two pirate rivals screamed and shouted as they clashed blades with each other. The other pirates, however, went straight for everyone else, trying to grab them and/or capture them. Janet would’ve helped Jezebel, but she also knew that she couldn’t just let the others get hurt. Seeing the nearest pirate, the former mayor of Everlock grabbed a rock on the ground, before throwing it at said pirate’s head. It missed, but it got the pirate’s attention, just enough for one of the guests, Tim, to run off.

“Hey! Over here!”

Cue the pirate taking out his gun and shooting at her. The bullet whizzed above her head, thankfully not hitting anyone or herself, but it was enough to make Janet regret her decision, turn on her heel, and run to catch up with the rest of the group.

A scream from her left made Janet turn her head, just in time for Jezebel to hit the water.

_What happened? Did she die? Did Rorik…? Is she...?_

If _another _ally of theirs was dead and/or stuck outside Purgatory with no way to help them, Janet had no idea what to do with everyone being offed. First Arthur died, then Mortimer temporarily died, and then Matpat and Nikita’s magic ran out…

_We have to stop losing people. But how?_

* * *

Jetpack Girl realized that somehow, the Sorceress disappeared again after the pirates had chased them around so much. Jetpack Girl had a feeling that they should just kill her, next time they see her. She didn’t really trust her since the beginning of the night, anyway.

But right now, they were back in the boat, matching up the items that were shown on the map pieces (after putting them together, that is).

“Hey!” Jetpack Girl turned on her heel, but she relaxed as soon as she realized it was Jezebel. She was a bit drenched from falling in the water,but otherwise fine.

“Jezebel!” Janet turned to face Jezebel, before she beamed at her. “You’re alive!”

“Well, ‘course I am.” Jezebel muttered, shaking some water out of her hair. “Wasn’t about to let fallin ‘ in the water get to me. Rorik’s on his way, though. You gotta hurry.”

That was when the last items were matched. A door opened, revealing golden coins, treasure galore waiting for them, and…

“A key!” Riley picked up the key, holding it up. “We got the key!”

All the guests burst into cheers—just before Rorik and his crew came running in, pointing guns.

“Hands up where we can see ‘em!” Rorik yelled, but Jezebel groaned, shaking her head as she turned to face him.

“For cryin’ out loud—!”

“Jezebel—”

Rorik and Jezebel’s anger turned towards each other, and Jetpack Girl picked up a ceremonial sword, pointing it at the other pirates.

“Get any closer to my friends and—” She started, just before Jezebel and Rorik started making out. Right on the spot.

Cue the other guests’ either horrified or scandalized gasps, as well as Janet’s face falling.

“Guys. Um.” Vincent looked mildly confused. “Did she just betray us?”

Mortimer exhaled slowly, a hand on Vincent’s shoulder. “Maybe.”

Rorik and Jezebel stopped with all the kissing, Alex pleading with Jezebel to _not_ betray them (Jetpack Girl noticed him and the pirate making eyes at each other for the past hour whenever they got close) but unfortunately, Mortimer was right.

Jezebel basically betrayed them. And if it wasn’t for the several pirates surrounding them right now, Jetpack Girl would beat the shit out of every single one of them.

* * *

Rorik’s eyes scanned the group, and Calliope tensed. She wasn’t sure what she could do in this situation. There were too many pirates to take out, even if everyone were to attack them at once. What could they do? Negotiate their way out? Maybe they’d be fine with that?

“You can keep the key.” Rorik finally spoke, gesturing to the key Riley held. “But one of you must die for crossing my path. Prove that you’re pirate-worthy, and you can live.”

Calliope thought of the witches’ challenge, how nearly all the cursed Helpers had to compete._ Is he making all of us compete? _She knew too well that she could outrun several of the guests if she tried hard enough. If _everyone_ competed, guests and Helpers alike, there was no way someone wasn’t losing and dying. She had to change things—_now._

“Wait!” Calliope suddenly burst out, and Rorik’s gaze snapped towards her.

“What?”

“You want us to prove we’re pirate worthy?” Calliope managed. “Then I’ll compete.”

“Just you?”

“Me and a few of the stronger ones, out of all of us.” She gestured to not just herself, but also her fellow Helpers, who looked a bit startled at the sudden proposition. “I’m sure you’d want to watch some good competition, right? See if _we’re_ pirate-worthy enough?”

She remembered how it was with the Witches, back in Everlock. How she, Vincent, Riley and Mortimer competed in the death challenge in place of the guests. Maybe they could do it again. If she lessened the numbers to just the Helpers competing, then…

“Calliope?” Alison looked towards her, frowning slightly. “Are you sure about this?”

Calliope nodded, swallowing. “I’m sorry for throwing you into this, but…this is our best chance. We can’t let absolutely all the guests…”

“I know.” Alison nodded quickly. “I can do it.” She looked towards Riley, Jetpack Girl, Mortimer, Vincent and Fatima. “You guys…?”

The others looked amongst themselves, then nodded. Calliope slowly heaved a breath, looking towards them. “That’s the only request we have.”

“Hm. We don’t have enough supplies to test every single one of you, anyway.” Rorik noted. “Very well. All you ‘stronger ones’ can see who’s pirate-worthy.”

“Wait.” One of the pirates pointed at Fatima and Mortimer. “Boss, the _rings!”_

Rorik looked towards Fatima and Mortimer, just as some of the pirates gasped. Calliope’s gaze snapped towards Fatima and Mortimer, both who wore rings they received earlier on in the hour, and very confused expressions on their faces to accompany them.

“You two have the pirate rings!” Rorik pointed at Fatima and Mortimer. “You’re already worthy—no need for you both to fight!”

“So,” Gabbie was heard gasping, “You’re both safe!”

_That leaves five of us._ Calliope realized. _Five of us have to fight for ten people._

Rorik seemed to get the same idea as Calliope, as he looked towards her again. “The rest of you strong lot will fight for two people each. Loser gets shot along with the two you try protecting. No deal, otherwise.”

All the guests immediately started protesting, but Janet tried to shush them as Calliope nodded. “Understood. We’ll do that.”

“Don’t take too long.” Rorik signaled for his crew and Jezebel to retreat from the room with him. “We’ll be waitin’ by the lake outside!”

Janet looked towards Calliope. “There’s six of us that could fight, but…it’s not like we have twelve guests. We only have ten.”

“But if we’re representing two people each…” Alison pointed out. “That means one more of us can sit out. But which one?”

“Um.” Calliope turned to face Mortimer, who swallowed, his gaze shifting from Janet to Vincent, and then he groaned, shaking his head. “I don’t want to choose. I don’t think I can.”

Fatima didn’t say anything, but she looked hesitant to straight-up choose one of the others to be safe.

Vincent looked from Mortimer, and then Janet, then Mortimer again. “Your mom can stay out of the challenge.”

“What?” Mortimer paled, looked towards Vincent. “Vincent, are you sure? I _don’t_ want to lose you again.”

“And I am glad you’re alive again. But I don’t want you to lose your mom, either. The rest of us can go in.”

Calliope decided it was best to stick with that decision. “We’ll do that, then.”

She thought she heard Janet break into a sob, and she turned her gaze to see Janet hug her son close. Mortimer hugged her back, and though he tried keeping his face neutral, Calliope saw his brows furrow a bit as he looked towards Vincent briefly, worry too-well reflected in them. Calliope did respect Vincent’s decision, though; last time they were in Everlock, Janet died at the beginning of that whole night. And now that they had her back (at least for now), it made sense he wanted her and Mortimer to both stay out of danger if they had the chance.

But now, they had a death challenge to focus on. Calliope could only hope everyone made it out alive this time.

Hope, at this point, might be all they have.


	21. Gunfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pirates' death challenge occurs, and most of the Helpers are at risk of losing not just their own lives, but also two guests that they represent in this race. Who will win? More importantly, who will survive?

The challenge went something like this: They had to roll a barrel up a hill, drink some grog, then roll it back down. Second: Hit a glass bottle with a slingshot and rocks. Finally: Get through the water by boat, get to the deck just across the lake and grab a pirate flag and return to shore.

Vincent was the first one to make it to the top of the hill out of everyone, drinking as fast as he could. It wasn’t easy (the brew was bitter), but he was determined to make it back to everyone, Mortimer included. There was no way he was letting himself (and the guests he was representing, Lele and Matt) get shot. Not just after he reunited with the love of his life.

* * *

Alison was second to make it up the hill, just after Vincent did. The barrel was heavier than she hoped, but at least she was drinking pretty quickly. She was representing for Alex and DeStorm. She found it funny that she was fighting for both of them, given how they dueled each other twice to the death at this point.

Then again, if those two once-enemies were now allies, and she’d met everyone else along with them post-dying, anything was possible. Maybe she could pull ahead and win. Whoever lost was not going to be her. She swore that would be so.

And whoever did lose, well, she’d make sure they didn’t get killed. Maybe she could rip out Rorik’s throat or something. She’d improvise when the time came.

* * *

The slowest of the lot would be shot, along with the two guests they were representing.

And Riley knew she didn’t want to get shot. She didn’t know how that felt in the slightest. She didn’t _want_ to know.

The barrel was heavy, but days of doing housechores and various other tasks of cleaning up the mess of a Victorian mansion helped her build up strength since her freedom from the Sorceress, and she’d always been a fast runner as is. She stumbled a few times, but she managed to get to the top of the hill third out of everyone, before drinking the grog. It was bitter, and it made her wonder how the pirates stood drinking such a thing, because it made her cough and gag.

The memory of witches watching her drink a bubbly brew made her drink faster, despite it. She thought of Justine and Tim, the two she represented in this race, and kept drinking. _No way am I letting them die._

* * *

Calliope was second-to-last for making it up the hill, and she wished she’d done better. Drinking, however, was much easier than last time she did so in a death challenge. She wished she could switch cups with Jetpack Girl, seeing how she was struggling with drinking her cup, but she knew the pirates were watching too closely.

_Sorry._ She whispered in her mind to Jetpack Girl, but she knew the other couldn’t hear her thoughts as she rolled her barrel down the hill. _But I have to win for Gabbie and Tana._

* * *

Jetpack Girl was, unfortunately, the last person to make it up the hill. Had this been a game where no one died, she would’ve cursed a bit, chugged down the grog as fast as she could, and rolled that barrel down the hill as fast as she could.

This was a game where people might actually die, her included. So she didn’t curse, but focused on chugging the grog straightaway before rolling the barrel down the hill. She had to do it for Joey and Bretman, after all. Their lives _depended _on it. Sure, they got lucky last death challenge, but if she lost, those two might get shot along with her.

Of course, she didn’t want to die. So she kept on fighting.

* * *

Mortimer, Janet and Fatima watched as their five other friends competed to stay alive.

“Is there anything we can do?” Fatima whispered. She didn’t have weapons on her, and Mortimer didn’t really have much on him, either. Sure, they could probably punch a few people, but the pirates had guns.

And there were multiple pirates, which didn’t help things.

“I don’t know.” Janet looked around, then looked towards Jezebel watching the death challenge. “Are you sure you’re fine with this? Us getting killed for a key?”

“I’m surprised most of you lot aren’t already dead.” Jezebel managed, raising a brow.

Wait, _what?_ Fatima’s gaze snapped towards Jezebel, then Rorik, who had a grin on his face. “You…knew? You knew all about us?”

“We’ve been here a bloody long while.” Rorik finally managed, before jabbing a finger towards Fatima. “We know of you, too. Exhibits and all.”

“Then you have to let us go.” Janet pleaded. “All of us. Please. If we don’t get out of here by sunrise—”

“You don’t cross my path and get away with it easily.” Rorik snapped back, frowning as he looked towards her. Fatima noticed Jezebel frown, but she also didn’t say anything, her gaze looking towards those struggling in the death challenge.

What were they supposed to do? Just…watch, as their friends possibly died?

* * *

Calliope somehow got full-speed ahead of everyone after the drinking, Vincent included. She’d made it to her boat before him, rowed at mach-speed and beat him to the first flag across the lake, and now she was on her way back. Vincent was a few feet behind her, so she was sure he’d be safe. He’d be fine, she knew that.

But she also just hated losing, and after what she nearly went through in the witches’ challenge in Everlock, she knew she had to change that. She raised the flag upon reaching shore, and Gabbie and Tana immediately cheered for her.

“You’re pirate-worthy!” Rorik cried out. Some of the pirates let out a “hurrah!” just before Rorik handed Calliope the Pirate Key. Calliope was just glad the man stuck to his word and let them keep the key after completing the challenge. And even better? She actually _won_ the challenge, this time.

She still remembered losing, last time. How she almost died, if she hadn’t saved herself with her powers. _But not this time,_ she reminded herself, clutching the key tightly in her hand. _This time, I’m staying alive._

Calliope heard a heaving gasp, and she turned to see Vincent run over, holding up his pirate flag.

“I got it.” He panted, almost falling to his knees, but Mortimer rushed forwards to catch him. “I got it.”

“You’re safe.” Mortimer breathed, before looking out towards the bay. Lele and Matt looked relieved that they were indeed safe. “Wait, but if you’re safe and Calliope is safe, that means…”

“Joanne, Riley and Alison. It’s between them.” Calliope finished, as she looked out towards the bay. _One of them is going to lose. _

* * *

“Am I rowing the right way?”

“I have no clue.”

Both Jetpack Girl and Riley were…well…not the greatest with navigating their boats. It seemed easier when they were working together with the others, but right now, they were just spinning in circles, or going in the wrong direction. Alison was starting to catch up, and as much as Jetpack Girl wanted to win, she also didn’t want Riley to be left behind.

Paddling as fast as she could, she managed to make it to Riley’s boat, bumping into it slightly, but then she offered Riley one end of one of her paddles.

Riley looked down at the paddle, then up at Jetpack Girl, blinking. “What…?”

“Hold onto it.” Jetpack Girl managed, offering her a grin. “We can both get each other to the flags if we row together.”

“You think that could work?”

“Yeah. Let’s do it!”

Grasping onto one paddle to stick together, the two carefully made their way to the flags waiting for them.

* * *

Alison was struggling. She didn’t know much about navigating a boat, and her past experience earlier tonight trying to row one wasn’t helping her much. Riley and Jetpack Girl were at least a few feet ahead of her, just about to go grab their flags, but she was determined to catch up.

_Just a few more feet,_ She told herself. _Just a few more, then grab the flag, then go all the way—_

She looked up again to see Riley grab her flag, just before Jetpack Girl did, and her heart sank.

Even then, she couldn’t give up. She rushed to grab her flag, get back to shore in the boat.

She couldn’t lose.

Not now.

Not—

“How did I know that you’d be last again!?”

She lost, didn’t she?

Her answer to that unspoken question came as Rorik pointed his sword at her, just as she got out of her boat upon reaching shore.

“Almost every time, you were _last.”_ Rorik sneered, pointing his sword at Alison. Riley tried to run to her, but Jezebel pushed her back. Two of the pirates grabbed Alex and DeStorm, dragging them from their pleading friends.

“Let them go!”

“Alex! DeStorm!”

Rorik lowered his sword, taking out a gun as the pirates forced Alex and DeStorm to stand with the vampire princess.

“I’m sorry.” Alison whispered, looking between both of them. She didn’t know what else to do.

“There has to be another way.” DeStorm whispered back.

“I don’t know how—”

“Hey!” Rorik’s yell had Alison’s gaze snap towards him again, and he frowned. “Can’t even be dignified enough to look your death in the eye, hm? Well…”

The click of a gun rang in her ears. Alison’s gaze looked him directly in the eye, just as Rorik smirked.

“Give my regards to the devil. You first.”

Alison then thought of a plan right then and there…right before jumping into the water behind her, grabbing both Alex and DeStorm and dragging both guests in with her. Immediately the three hit the lake, sinking beneath the surface. She let go of both of them, trying to blink several times to see them clearly. DeStorm and Alex both clearly were surprised by the sudden move on her part, Alex nearly surfacing, but Alison dragged him back down, using her free hand to point, trying to tell them to go around.

Maybe they could avoid Rorik. He couldn’t get them in the water that easily, right?

_But at least I bought time. _

_Is time enough?_

* * *

Meanwhile, on the surface, Janet saw Rorik rage, face reddening as he glared down at the waters where Alison dragged DeStorm and Alex into.

“Get back here!” He snapped towards the waters, before pointing his gun. “I’ll shoot you lot _in_ there, if I have to—”

That was when Jezebel stormed up to Rorik, punching him in the side of the head. Rorik hit the floor, loosening his grip on his gun, and Jezebel snatched it up, pointing it at his head.

“They ain’t dying today.” Jezebel hissed, and some of the pirates were overheard gasping. “Give it up, Rorik. I’m not becoming your first mate, either. Co-captains, or nothing.”

Rorik groaned, glared up at her. “Tell me you’re _joking,_ love. None of these landlubbers have anythin’ on me and my crew.”

Jezebel raised a brow. _“My_ crew, now.”

“What—”

And Jezebel fired. Rorik slumped to the ground entirely, dead.

The rest of the pirates immediately let out cheers, just as Alison, DeStorm and Alex emerged from the water, gasping for air. All the rest of the guests ran to the three, trying to help them out, and Janet looked towards Jezebel, who still held the gun in her hands. She didn’t point it at anyone, but she did make eye contact with Everlock’s former mayor, before speaking.

“Get your friends and go.”

Janet blinked. That wasn’t what she expected her to say. _“What?”_

“You heard me.” Jezebel looked around, then towards her again. “You said you had little time left, yeah? Then get going!”

“Wait.” Janet thought of how Fatima joined them earlier. “You and your crew…maybe you’d like to come with us?”

Jezebel shrugged. “As much as you lot seem fun, I’ve got my own things. Besides,” She then beamed, a fire in her eyes, “I’m the captain now!”

“Captain Jezebel!” Cheers of her name rang through the rest of the pirate crew, just as Jezebel turned to face them.

“Double rations tonight, to celebrate!” She roared, and all the other pirates burst into another cheer together.

Janet looked towards the other Helpers and guests, now seeing that Alison, Alex and DeStorm were out of the water, alive, and though shivering, at least they seemed well. She then looked towards Jezebel, who waved her off as if saying “go!” to her.

Janet smiled back, gave her a nod, and left to join the others. Questions swirled in her mind about how well Jezebel and the other pirates knew about her, the guests and the Helpers before meeting them in person, but she knew she couldn’t focus on that.

Right now, they had little time left to get out of Purgatory. And what mattered, more than ever right now, was surviving this night.


	22. Of Cavemen and Totems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Good news: The party only has one more key left to find!
> 
> Bad news: They have to go through dinosaurs to get it.
> 
> Better news: They have an ally in the form of a caveman.

Mortimer dreaded the question one might ask him.

But of all people, it was Vincent that asked him.

“What happened when you died?”

Mortimer looked his lover in the eyes. He saw the familiar flicker of concern Vincent had in his face whenever Mortimer woke up from a nightmare or thought hard about his life back in Everlock. And as much as dying hurt, nearly as bad as how Lucy hurt him back in Everlock (gods, he hated recalling those memories), he really didn’t want to talk about it.

“Don’t really know if I want to chat about it, right now.” He managed, looking right back in Vincent’s eyes.

“Mortimer—” Vincent started.

Mortimer shook his head, and Vincent went quiet. The former madman frowned softly, swallowed as his gaze shifted away from him, but then looked towards him again.

“You can tell me when you’re ready. If you want to tell me. Or someone else. When we’re home.”

“Yeah.” The mayor’s son pulled the other into an embrace. He savoured the hug in the moment. It wasn’t like he could hug anyone when he was dead, after all. At least, not in the way that he died. “When we’re home.”

* * *

Calliope turned the key in the lock, and nothing seemed to happen at first. The Sorceress had, once again, reunited with the lot, and it was making her suspicious about how often the Sorceress kept up and leaving them, lately. Should the Sorceress abandon them again, Calliope knew she had good reason to potentially off her, especially if she was up to nay evil plans.

A wordless holler came from her left, and everyone else let out yelps and screams, backing away as a _caveman _entered the lounge. With shaggy hair and wearing virtually nothing but animal furs and worn linen, he looked around, almost frantic, before Gabbie gasped.

“wait, guys, he’s good!” Gabbie took a step towards him, before looking to the others. “This is the guy who was tied up with me and Mortimer earlier!”

“Oh yeah, you’re right.” Mortimer let go of Vincent, went over the caveman. He waved at the caveman, before looking between Gabbie and him, and then he spoke. “Uh…remember us?”

The Caveman responded in a language Calliope couldn’t interpret. This…might be difficult. After a moment, the Caveman then pointed outside the room, before leaving.

“Wait!” Gabbie went running out, Mortimer following.

“Wait up!” Vincent called, before he also went, presumably following Mortimer.

Cue everyone else bum-rushing their way out of the room to see what was going on. Calliope couldn’t help but internally groan. _What are we getting ourselves into **now?**_

* * *

Outside was a dinosaur skeleton, and underneath it were different footprints the group had to match up with different stands, based on the description. At least, that was what it seemed like they had to do, in Fatima’s opinion. The first three to match (Fredidonaurus, Karillopholis and Saraptor) were easy to match up.

The last one, however?

Fatima read the last description aloud. _“Copyldactyl, bird-like dinosaur with membranes between shoulders and wrists, allowing it to glide short distances”._

Mortimer held up a sharp bird footprint. “This one?”

It wasn’t the one, but one of the other guests found the right one in the end. The bottom of the platform with the raptor skeleton opened up, and Fatima noticed a note sticking out, as well as a large egg.

“An egg?” Joey went over to it, before reading aloud._ “The egg of civilization must be taken to the sacred hollow for life to continue in a prehistoric world on the brink of extinction. Venture into the valley of the lost souls to find the animal totems needed to awaken the hollow. Be careful, the one who carries the egg will be hunted and passing it back and forth might be the only way to survive. If one of you is caught with it, of fails to protect it, will be forced into the final challenge with no vote.”_

Well. That…wasn’t good.

All the Helpers immediately agreed that none of the actual guests would carry said egg. No buts.

“But—” Joey started, but Fatima gave him a look.

“NO.” Surprisingly, she was not the only one that said it at once. Some of the guests couldn’t help but laugh at that.

* * *

Going into the valley wasn’t difficult. The Caveman, despite his overall lack of understanding English language, guided them outside, in what appeared to be a Prehistoric Exhibit.

Why did they think this was the prehistoric exhibit? Oh, right. Raptors chasing them. That’s why.

The entire chase was a blur. Jetpack Girl could hardly remember much else, looking back on it, other than frantically tossing the egg to Riley at some point, who then passed it to Vincent, then Mortimer, then Calliope, then Alison, up until they reached the Caveman’s home.

Said home was mostly a cave. Which made sense, Jetpack Girl supposed. But it was pretty dirty, with things almost all over the place, and it reminded her of Cedric’s former laboratory, where everything was literally everywhere. As far as she could tell with what they had to do next, they had to paint…things.

The Caveman pointed at the egg in Alison’s hands. Immediately, the guests figured out they had to draw it, and Bretman did that.

The next one does give them difficulty, but soon Lele points out that they have to draw a raptor.

A green light appeared, as well as a clue and a rod. Said rod would, apparently, lead the group to two out of the three animal totems they needed to awaken the hollow, with the last found inside the dinosaurs den.

Cue splitting into two groups. Group One was Joey, Lele, Matt, Justine, and Tim. Group Two would be Gabbie, Tana, DeStorm, Alex, and Bretman.

Jetpack Girl decided to take her chances with Joey’s group, and Fatima, the Sorceress, and Riley joined her. Alison, Vincent, Mortimer and Janet decided to stick with the second group.

* * *

As the first group walked around with the rod, the Sorceress knew that the entire party was only one step closer until they (hopefully) found her staff.

And then, she could execute her plans. She’d used her time away from the group, while they were distracted with the pirates and thieves, to try to find her Staff. She hadn’t been successful, and with that, sought to rejoin the others.

She felt Jetpack Girl’s gaze towards her, but she did her best to ignore it. She wasn’t surprised that Jetpack Girl had her eye on her, but that wouldn’t matter.

Once she had her staff back, _no one_ would stop her.

* * *

“Have you found all the stones yet!?”

Tim counted all the stones so far. “Uh, let’s see…two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve…Nope! We still need five more!”

Cue collective groans from the rest of the party. For some reason, they had to rebuild a symbol with exactly seventeen stones. It wasn’t easy digging, in Riley’s opinion. Given the rocky, somewhat slippery terrain, it wasn’t easy to find the stones they needed.

What was relieving, however, was everyone working together. Joey, Tim and the Sorceress ended up helpign with the building, while everyone else was trying to find said stones. Soon enough, they made it.

And after that, more green light appeared, revealing the first of the three animal totems.

“Alright!” Riley heard Jetpack Girl cheer. “Let’s find that second one next!”

Riley couldn’t help but smile.

* * *

Meanwhile with the second group, they had to find eight bones hidden in the dinosaur’s den. That was simple enough.

What made it not-so-simple was being chased by dinosaurs.

“Over here!” Vincent heard Mortimer yell, and his gaze snapped towards him to see a dinosaur roar, before running at him. Immediately Vincent grabbed Mortimer by the wrist, both of them screaming as they ran. It vaguely reminded him of how the Man With No Name chasing them, back in Everlock, but there were no red lights to hide under this time.

It also didn’t help that Vincent now currently held the egg with his spare arm, either, which further attracted the dinosaurs to them.

“Vince?” Mortimer managed, some time into the chasing.

“Yeah?”

“You gotta let go of the egg.” Mortimer looked around, then up ahead before shouting. “Mom!? Help!”

Vincent looked up to see Janet yelp as she saw both her son, her son’s lover, and the multiple dinosaurs chasing them. “Wha—okay!?”

“Here!” Vincent quickly threw the egg to Janet. Thankfully, she caught it, and went sprinting off in another direction. Unfortunately, this only spurred two of the three dinosaurs to chase her. The last one roared, and Vincent doubled his running pace. A flash of green light came from somewhere, just before Alison yelled to them.

“Vincent! Mortimer! We got the last statue! We gotta go!”

He was more than happy to run off with the others, Mortimer in tow. The sooner they got out of the dinosaurs’ den and reunited with the rest of their (fairly large) party, the better.

* * *

Getting the next totem was easy, in Fatima’s opinion. They found it in a tree stump, with a bunch of bones. After moving that, they found a hole with some gross liquid in it. Someone just had to shove their hand in there and get the totem out.

Fatima decided to take one for the team and do it. Riley looked too grossed out to do it, and Calliope didn’t seem as thrilled, either. Neither did the Sorceress and Jetpack Girl, for that matter. She vaguely recalled hearing Riley mention something about a “toilet in Everlock,” but she figured it was best to ask more about that later.

Sure, she had disgusting goop on her hands afterwards, but at least they got the statue. They took that, as well as the first one they found earlier, before moving to rejoin the others.

Good news: Everyone was alive. They did as they were instructed, placing the three animal totems before the sacred hollow, and placing the egg inside when the light of creation shone.

Bad news: In order to get the final key, _“Two people must be selected by vote to enter the raptors feeding pit and find required items.”_

Somehow, the voting results in Bretman being voted in for a second time tonight.

It also results in Lele being voted in, and Vincent’s blood freezes at hearing her name being called by the Sorceress. Lele visibly paled, but Matt looked towards her.

“They’ll save you.” Matt managed. “They’ve saved all of us; they can save you too.”

Lele blinked, looking towards Matt. “I can’t argue with that, but it’s _dinosaurs.”_

“Maybe they have something to kill them with?” Tim suggested.

Meanwhile, all the Helpers huddled and tried to figure out what weapons they had.

Jetpack Girl sighed. “I lost my gun because of the Minotaur.”

Vincent looked at his gun. “I have a few shots left.”

Janet just holds up Garuda’s blades.

Everyone else has a variety of blades and/or crowbars. No one has any clue if that will help against dinosaurs.

“Maybe we don’t have to kill the dinosaurs.” It’s Riley who offers the suggestion. “Do you think we can befriend them?”

Calliope shook her head. “I don’t think they have the same emotional capacity that we do, so no.”

Fatima looked down at herself. What could she do? “Would they like to see dancing as a distraction?”

_Speaking of distractions_…she looked towards the egg they placed in the hollow, moments ago, and then towards the others, taking a deep breath.

“Everyone? I think I have an idea…”


	23. The Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Helpers participate in their riskiest plan yet to save a guest. However, upon getting the key they need, it turns out getting out won't be as easy as having everything they need...

Janet knew Fatima had an idea. While the dinosaurs watched Lele and Bretman battle out finding body parts in the raptors’ feeding pit, as they required finding a brain, heart and an eyeball to get the key, the Helpers would grab the egg from where it once was and use it to lure the dinosaurs away.

After all, having the egg was what attracted the dinosaurs.

So if they could get the egg…

Riley had offered to go get the egg. She was the fastest runner out of everyone, which worked in her favour, but that egg was pretty heavy. Janet knew that from experience. So, she figured: why not work with Riley to distract everyone?

She didn’t blame Jetpack Girl for worrying about the safety of both of them. Hell, _everyone_ worried about their safety (even those that were currently in the challenge). But Janet was determined as ever to make sure the ones that were in the challenge survived it.

Just as Lele lost the challenge, the dinosaurs starting to head towards her, Riley went ahead of Janet, grabbing the egg before holding it up.

“HEY!” Janet yelled. All the dinosaurs turned to see the two, roaring, but that didn’t stop the Mayor of Everlock from continuing to yell at them. “LOOK!”

Riley held up the egg. The dinosaurs roared and immediately charged at them. Both women didn’t hesitate to start running. The rocky terrain did nothing to help, Janet almost tripping over her feet, but that was when Riley tossed it to her. “Catch!”

Janet caught it. The sudden weight almost made her fall, but she managed to catch herself, continuing to run. The roar of the dinosaurs continued echoing behind her, and she didn’t stop running. Her legs, sore from running all night as is, screamed for her to stop, but she didn’t. If she stopped running, she was dead. There was no doubt about that. She’d die if she stopped any moment now.

She doubted fighting the dinosaurs was an option. They were much larger than her, after all. Although she slayed Garuda with two blades at once earlier in the night, she’d given them to Calliope before going with Riley to get the egg.

“Riley!?” Janet looked around, just in time to see Riley wave. Despite her fast running skills, even she was struggling to keep up her current pace at this point.

“Throw it to me!” Riley yelled, and Janet threw the egg, just as her legs gave out underneath her.

* * *

Riley managed to catch the egg before it could hit the ground, turning on her heel to go put the egg back where it initially was. Thankfully, all the dinosaurs had their attention on her, giving Janet time to crawl (or run, depending on how fast she could get up after falling to the ground) away from them.

Bad news? All the dinosaurs had their attention on Riley.

And as much as she prided herself on being a fast runner, she didn’t how much faster she could run at this point.

“Riley!”

Who was calling her? She looked around, almost tripping over her feet as she carried the heavy egg. Looking up ahead, she saw Jetpack Girl, waving.

“Get over here! Now!”

Riley decided it was best to just book it for her girlfriend. The moment she reached Jetpack Girl, however, that was when she heard a yell above her.

Looking up, she saw Calliope standing on one of the higher rocks above the dinosaurs, both of Garuda’s blades in hand. With no hesitation, she let out another yell and leapt ontop of the first of three dinosaurs, stabbing directly into its skull.

Alison, who was also on the same rock with Calliope, standing just a few feet behind her, could be heard gasping. “What!? Calliope‒”

“I got this!” Calliope yelled back. “Riley, Joanne, put the egg back and run! You too, Alison!”

“No! I can’t just leave you!”

“Go!” Calliope stabbed into the dinosaur’s head for the second time, and the dinosaur let out one final cry before starting to collapse. As it did so, Calliope carefully leapt from it and latched onto the second one, trying to stab into it. She managed to grab onto the dinosaur’s neck, so she stabbed directly into it with the first blade, before using the second blade to both brace herself against that second dinosaur and also

Riley felt Jetpack Girl grab her wrist, start to drag her off. “We gotta go. We can’t stick around.”

“But what about Calliope!?” Riley’s gaze snapped towards Jetpack Girl. Her girlfriend looked towards her, swallowing.

“She..kinda might’ve told me to get you away from here and leave it all to her.”

“Of course she did. But…” Riley looked up towards Calliope‒_just in time to see Alison leap off the rocks and latch onto the third dinosaur. “What!?”_

“Huh?” Jetpack Girl looked up to see both Alison and Calliope steadying themselves on the third dinosaur. “What are you two doing!? This isn’t in the plan!”

“Just go ahead of us!” Alison yelled back. “We got this!”

Riley decided that maybe it was just a better idea to grab her girlfriend and run, in the moment. So, they did just that, immediately after putting the egg back where it belonged and after helping Janet get to her feet. She thought she heard Alison and Calliope both yell, followed by a dinosaur’s dying roar, but she was so focused on running that she didn’t realize the dinosaur was dead until the two caught up with them.

* * *

Meanwhile with Fatima, Mortimer, Vincent and the Sorceress, the four were with the guests, about halfway back to booking it back to the Lounge. Vincent looked behind him, hoping to see a sign of Jetpack Girl, Alison, Riley, Janet or even Calliope.

There was no sign of them. Vincent knew that the four had told him and the others to run ahead, but…what about them? Would they be okay?

“Should we have stayed back?” Fatima fidgeted a bit as she walked, shaking her head. “I don’t know.”

_“Somehow_ they manage to survive.” The Sorceress drawled, groaning slightly. “I don’t get how they do it.”

“Of course you wouldn’t know.” Mortimer shot back. “You were already dead at the time.”

The Sorceress glared at him, but no one had the chance to get into an argument before someone called out.

“Guys!?”

Vincent turned to see none other than Calliope, who held both Garuda’s blades in her hands (and noticeably even bloodier than before). Janet and Riley looked winded and exhausted, but definitely alive. Jetpack Girl and Alison were the most normal-looking at the moment, other than some dust and dirt on their clothes.

“You’re alive!” One of the guests yelled, just before the rest burst into cheering.

Vincent ran over to Calliope, staring down at the blades, then up at her. “Did you…?”

“I killed the dinosaurs after Riley and Janet sent them on a wild goose chase. Alison helped with the last one.” She smiled a little bit. “Looks like the plan worked.”

“Vincent!” He turned just in time for Riley to envelop him in a hug. “Are you okay?”

The sudden force of her hugging him made Vincent almost fall over, but he held his friend carefully, maneuvering his feet so that he didn’t fall while holding her. “I’m fine. Me and the others are fine. What about you?”

“I’m okay. Tired, but…okay.” She grinned, before looking towards Jetpack Girl, a soft giggle escaping her. “We did it. We’re going to get home.”

Jetpack Girl couldn’t help but smile, before approaching the two, pulling them into a hug. “You’re right.” She murmured. Despite how dusty both Riley and Jetpack Girl were from running around in the ruins, Vincent kept his arms wrapped around them. His friends were alive. They were alive, and he was grateful for that.

Vincent heard Mortimer groan a little. “Hey, don’t leave _me_ out of the hugs!”

Vincent looked towards Mortimer, smiling at him. “I plenty reserved for you when we get out of here, Mortimer. Promise.”

“Good.” Mortimer raised a brow, chuckled a bit himself. “Because I look forward to _that_ after being temporarily dead and coming back to ilfe.”

Some of the guests “awwwwed” at that, and despite feeling his face flush, Vincent couldn’t help but laugh a bit.

All they had to do was turn the key, and get out of here.

That was all they needed.

* * *

Back in the lounge, it was very clear that 1. They only had thirty minutes to get out of here. 2. At least they had all the keys, so that meant that they could just turn in the last one and get out of here!

Jetpack Girl was definitely looking forward to going home. She was tired, she was sure everyone else was tired, and sooner they got out of this death trap of a museum, the better. As Bretman turned the key in the last keyhole, however, a loud ‘boom’ reverbrated through the room. A secret room opened with a blue light shining from it, and Jetpack Girl heard the Sorceress gasp.

“My staff!” The Sorceress booked it for the staff that was contained in the chamber. However, that wasn’t the only thing. There was also a large, glass jar on a pedestal nearby, glowing green. Joey made it over to it first, before a gasp escaped him.

“Guys? I think…” The Savant swallowed. “I think these are our friends.”

“What!?” All the guests immediately rushed for the jar, some of them gasping. Jetpack Girl quickly went over to check it out, too, and saw that there were familiar faces in there.

“Sierra.” Jetpack Girl heard Matt breathe. “Ohmygod, she’s in there.”

“And that’s Andrea.” Tim pointed.

Justine pointed. “Look! Glozell’s in here, too!”

Calliope approached the jar, examining it closely. “The Collector took everyone from the first two parties.” She murmured, shaking her head. “If we didn’t save everyone in Everlock…they might be stuck in here, for all we know.”

Jetpack Girl’s gaze looked towards her. “Do you know how to get this thing open and free everyone?”

“I don’t know.” Calliope reached a hand towards it, touching the lid. She tried to twist it open, but it unfortunately wasn’t that simple. “It’s locked. Probably the Collector’s power.”

“So we gotta defeat the Collector to get them out?” DeStorm asked.

Before anyone could answer his question, that was when a scream could be heard from outside. The Sorceress groaned, and Jetpack Girl turned to see her. “What is it?”

“It’s the Collector.” The Sorceress finally managed, looking towards her. “She’s back.”

* * *

“What have you done to my museum!?”

The Collector’s screams echoed through the building as the entire party decided to rush out and see what the heck was going on out there. The Collector stood just outside the building, wielding her own staff and looking definitely pissed.

Riley had a bad feeling about this. Her other friends seemed to get the same idea, with Calliope taking out her crowbar, Alison baring her fangs. But before any of them could strike, the Sorceress stepped forwards, raising a brow.

“You put the wrong bitch in your exhibit.” The Sorceress hissed, before rushing at the Collector. The two women exchanged blows with their staves, the magical glow of their weapons beaming in the night. Jetpack Girl hesitated to rush in and separate them, because 1. Even if the Sorceress was (formerly) an enemy and hadn’t been super-helpful during this whole night (hell, even Arthur had been more helpful than her at this point before he died), maybe she had enough power to off the Collector by herself, and 2. Jetpack Girl didn’t have any weapons on her, anyway, and the rest of the party didn’t have much other than Calliope’s crowbar, the two blades that Janet had on her, and Alison’s fangs at this point (the guns were either destroyed or out of ammo at this point). So…

The Sorceress’ yell and the Collector’s pain scream took her out of her thoughts, just in time for her to see the Collector hit the ground. Before she could get up, the Sorceress raised her own staff, before using it to stab her in the chest.

The guests burst into cheers. The Helpers aren’t sure what to do.

But then the Sorceress laughs. It starts low, but it rises as she turns to face the group, wielding her staff with pride shimmering in her eyes. Her staff glowed again, and the words that next fell from her lips made Jetpack Girl shudder.

“You can go back to your exhibits. This museum is_ mine_ now!”


	24. The Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Collector...is not as beaten as easily as the party hoped. Also, the party is betrayed by a former ally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU FOR OVER 1000 VIEWS ON THE FANFIC AS OF THIS CHAPTER! XD I really appreciate the love and support all of you brought to this fic. So thank you all so much!
> 
> I also have a little announcement, however: This fic will officially end at Chapter 28 (meaning only two more weeks of updates after today's chapter). It's been a wild ride writing this fic, and I am very grateful for all the support. I hope all of you join me for the last four chapters!

Jetpack Girl glared at the Sorceress, who smiled.

“You’re not gonna get away with this.” Jetpack Girl wasn’t sure how hollow her threat sounded. Sure, she didn’t have a gun or magical powers on her, but she knew the others did. “We’re going to get everyone home.”

“Are you so sure about that?” The Sorceress shot back. The staff in her hand glowed fiercely, illuminating the space around her. “I can turn you all into exhibits with a flick of my staff.”

“Not if we defeat you first.”

That was when the laughter began, out of nowhere. The Sorceress paused, looking around, and then Jetpack Girl heard Lele speak up.

“The Collector, she’s glowing!”

“What!?” The party turned to see a golden glow appear around the Collector’s fallen body…

And then she stood.

* * *

Low laughter escaped the Collector as she got back up again, looking completely unscathed. Vincent immediately recalled how the Carnival Master looked fine despite being fishhooked. Was it the same with the Collector here?

“She’s alive!?” Matt yelped, just before the Collector laughed, smirking.

“You thought you could kill me in _my own museum?”_ The Collector spoke. Even the Sorceress’ eyes widened upon seeing her get up again, and Vincent swallowed. _If the Sorceress can’t kill her, then…?_ “Meet my newest collection!”

The Collector raised her staff, then slammed it into the ground, smoke rising above from behind her. Emerging from said smoke, moments after, were faces Vincent was too familiar with. Many of them were from Everlock. There was Benjamin, towering high above everyone. Lucy, who cackled as she held the baseball bat in her hands. The Killer clown. The Carnival master (without his crystal in his chest, but still just as intimidating).

“Remember them!?” The Collector shouted. “They have _not_ forgotten you!”

Joey looked paler than a bedsheet. Vincent wondered if Joey was familiar with all of these beings. _And I thought I had it bad when stuck in that one house. How much has this man suffered, seeing all these frights?_

“You’re forgetting one person, Collector.”

A figure stepped out. They were a long hood that covered most of their body, and a grey mask that obscured their face entirely, save for two empty eyeholes. The figure pulled off the mask, and the face underneath it smirked towards Vincent and the others.

“Arthur?” Vincent felt his whole world freeze for a moment. It _couldn’t_ be possible. Arthur _died_ when the Black Knight attacked him! “How…?”

“You thought I was dead? I did a good job conning you, then.” Arthur chuckled, before looking towards the Collector briefly. The Collector smiled at him, before he looked towards the party again. “The Collector knew I was a valuable ally to her. And I’m more than willing to assist her to keep all of you down here.”

“You coward!” Calliope was heard yelling. “You were planning to betray us all along!?”

Alison groaned. “I _knew_ we shouldn’t have trusted him to help.”

Arthur simply smiled. “The Black Knight and I knew each other well, after I died and ended up in the Museum. I managed to bust out of my display and stumbled into Britannia. I promised to help him defeat King Arthur, and he accepted. The Collector found out about our alliance, and figured I was better left outside my case after I gave her the opportunity to…take the lead and give him what he needed to take over Britannia.”

“So_ you_ caused the fall of King Arthur and imprisoned Merlin.” Riley’s fists shook almost as much as she spoke. “Why?”

“To gain power in this Museum, of course. And all of you,” Arthur’s gaze swept over the whole group, “Would play a role. While the Collector and the Gorgon took more exhibits for her collection, I stayed behind.”

“So,” Janet choked, “When you ran into me and Alison…”

He simply nodded. “Correct. It was no coincidence. I planned to be caught with you two. The rest was history. Lucky for me, Merlin didn’t remember me by the time we met him again, or things would’ve been trickier to execute, like faking my death for example.”

“Fuck you.” Mortimer pointed his gun at Arthur. “Oh, fuck you, Arthur!”

The Collector looked towards the party of horrors she brought with her, then to Arthur, before yelling, _“Bring me their heads!”_

* * *

Somehow, by some sheer luck, everyone made it into the Lounge (except for the Sorceress, who was now engaged in a one-on-one battle with the Sorceress) and found a note explaining things within the Armageddon clock. They had to make sure that if anyone got captured, they would have to go to the Gorgon’s lair to free them. And in order to kill the Collector, they needed the “Sword Of All Legends,” which they would get after finding seven emblems in the Museum (which meant they had to solve seven clues).

Riley remembered how the guests once had to rescue her from the Sorceress. And now, everyone had to rescue themselves from the Collector and her minions. There were many; some that Riley recognized, others she did not.

But she couldn’t focus on that. She had to get to the Egyptian Exhibit, first.

* * *

Mortimer shuddered at seeing Lucy and the Blue Harpy guarding the Egyptian exhibit. Memories he didn’t want to think of came back to him, but he shook his head. If he faltered now, everyone wouldn’t get out of here.

And with that in mind, the guests and Helpers booked it for the Egyptian Exhibit.

“Mortimer~!” Lucy’s sing-song voice chilled him to the bone. “It’s been _too long!”_

“Oh, shut up!” Mortimer yelled back. He didn’t look back though, even as he heard her laugh.

He was the last one to make it into the exhibit, and immediately he turned on his heel, closing the doors in her face. Lucy screamed and beat her fists against the door, but Mortimer held it tight. He noticed Fatima approach, also holding it closed with him as Vincent looked around, before opening up a nearby glass box, reading the note aloud.

_“The letters of a land forgotten by time can release me.”_ On the box was a lock, one that required five letters.

Bretman snapped his fingers. “It’s gotta be Egypt, honey. Put it in!”

Vincent didn’t hesitate to try it. It worked. Inside was the first emblem needed, and Mortimer couldn’t help but heave a relieved breath.

As long as he and everyone else worked fast enough, maybe they could get all seven emblems needed fast enough.

* * *

_“The second emblem sits beneath Vishnu’s feet!” _

Janet groaned at the mention of Vishnu. “Do we really have to go back there again? I already killed him!”

“Maybe his dead body will be there.” Tim suggested. “Can’t be that bad if he’s dead.”

Calliope frowned, looked around. “We can’t get separated from each other. Stick together, alright?"

The group managed to make it to the rotunda (after avoiding a Killer Clown, of course), and found another note saying: _“Carry the bags of the sacred earth across the grounds to the remains of Garuda to help him pay his penance in hell.”_

_Seriously? _Janet couldn’t help but roll her eyes._ Why should we bother helping him? Especially since he almost killed some of us? But if it’s going to get us out…_

She picked up a bag, wincing at how heavy it was. It was almost as heavy as the egg from earlier, but it wasn’t horrible. All they had to do was just bring it to the remains of Garuda, right? Whatever was left of him at least.

This task seemed almost too easy, but they accomplished it. While Janet, Vincent and Calliope carried the bags, everyone else was on the lookout for monsters and/or villains alike. But hey, at least they got the second of the seven emblems afterwards!

* * *

The third one had an obvious location, in Fatima’s opinion.

_“The next one lies where the Emperor once sat to think”. _

She noticed the one called Justine making a face. “Are all the emblems scattered all over the Museum!?”

“Seems so.” Tana managed, as the group continued on their way to the exhibit where the Emperor once was.

Getting into the exhibit wasn’t hard.

Hiding from Lucy and the Harpy again, though? That was hard. Somehow, Fatima found herself mashed together with Mortimer and Vincent under a chair, while all the guests and helpers managed to hide elsewhere. Lucy came into the room.

“Morty~” Fatima heard Lucy call. “I know I saw you~!”

Fatima, with the little room she had under that chair with Mortimer and Vincent, noticed Mortimer visibly pale at the sound of his name being called. Perhaps the two had bad history? She didn’t know the details. She did notice, however, Vincent covering Mortimer’s mouth with a hand carefully so he wouldn’t let out any panicked noises.

Lucy and the Harpy left. Fatima was glad to get out from under that chair, because she wasn’t sure how much longer she could do that. Thankfully, they didn’t have to stick around long in the room, because the guests figured out they had to create a sign on the scroll with sticks. The third emblem appeared.

Fatima thought that they would get through all of this fast, because they were.

That no one would get captured.

But just as she walked out of the Emperor’s exhibit, two hands grabbed her. A scream left her as she fought against the strong grip, but it was too much. The hands spun her around, before she saw the leering face of Lucy.

“_Got you,”_ Lucy hissed, and Fatima could only yell for everyone to run as she and the Harpy ran off with her.


	25. The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jetpack Girl and Riley go to Fatima's rescue, while Vincent and Mortimer face off against Arthur.

“FATIMA!”

“FATIMA, NO!”

_“FATIMA!”_

Jetpack Girl was the first to see Fatima get dragged off by Lucy and the blue-feathered Harpy, and she didn’t hesitate to run after them.

_How do I free her again?_ She thought, as she continued her pursuit. _Something about going to the Gorgon’s lair and…_

“I’m coming with you!”

She looked up to see Riley by her side.

“What?” Jetpack Girl nearly faltered in her steps. “What about the others?”

“I told them to look for the next emblem. That the two of us could save her.” Riley swallowed, before she held up a knife. “Calliope let me borrow this. And we’re both fast.”

Jetpack Girl looked at the knife, and then towards Riley, before a grin came across her face. “Remember the last time I used my jetpack?”

Riley looked towards the jetpack strapped to her back. “Could it work?”

“Yeah. But you gotta hang on, okay?”

* * *

Meanwhile with everyone else, Vincent and Mortimer doing most of the leading, they also had to head to the Gorgon’s lair to get the fourth emblem. They ended up having to hide from Benjamin and the Carnival Master (which was much easier to do, given all the statues lying around), before they turned said statues towards the Minotaur’s head, since that was the beast that killed the Gorgon, getting the next emblem.

The emblem wasn’t the only thing they found, however. There was also some red sand, and a bottle of blood as well as a note.

And that note…well.

“Wait.” Mortimer watched Janet read the note, before her jaw dropped. “That Gorgon was part of the Society Against Evil!?”

Calliope grimaced at that as Janet looked up at her. “Yes. I somewhat knew of her. That’s Jael’s sister…Cassidy.”

“And you didn’t think to tell us?” Mortimer asked her, raising a brow. It wasn’t the first time Calliope withheld secrets. He knew that too well.

“What happened with her and this museum was _very_ personal to Jael.” Calliope managed. “I couldn’t just up and tell everyone.”

Janet sighed, before continuing to read. “Looks like we have to pour her blood on Excalibur to use it, after we get to it…that’s all I’m reading here.”

“Then we should get to the next emblems, and quickly.” Alison spoke up, pushing a few messy bangs out of her face. Mortimer noticed a tiredness in her face that he hadn’t seen before. Perhaps, even as a vampire, one could get tired from all the running. “It won’t do us good to just stand here for much longer.”

Mortimer nodded, and the rest of the party got the hint, turning on their heels…

_Just _in time to see Arthur step into the clearing, the click of a gun’s safety sounding as he pointed the weapon at them.

“None of you are going anywhere.” His usually polite-soudning voice sounded rough, and Mortimer knew the man meant business. Looking around, he quickly picked up a fallen sword (probably from a gladiator-turned-statue), before pointing it at Arthur.

“Gotta get through me first.” Mortimer breathed, just as he overheard Calliope and Alison yell for the guests to run. From the corner of his eye, he saw Calliope toss a crowbar to Vincent, who turned on his heel to look at Arthur.

“And me.” Vincent’s voice sounded clear. There was no trembling in his voice, even as he managed to get eye contact with Arthur. “You have to go through me, too.”

The other guests and Helpers ran to go work on the next emblem. Mortimer watched Arthur smile, before pointing the gun at him.

“Then I guess I’ll have to kill both of you, won’t I?”

* * *

Riley knew that Jetpack Girl used her jetpack once. It resulted in Calliope literally hanging onto her, back in Everlock when they had to go to a graveyard and get a rattle to lure away a zombie mother. Riley had imagined it was an awkward task to do, but she didn’t realize how awkward it was until _now._

Trying to hang on for dear life as the jetpack on her girlfriend’s back roared to life, Riley ended up somehow grabbing onto Joanne’s waist, wrapping her arms around her tight. If this wasn’t a life and death situation, she would be laughing right now.

But this _was _a life and death situation, so she didn’t.

“Hang on!” She heard Joanne yelp above her. “I don’t think we’re gonna land well, and..”

Before she could finish her sentence, the two hit something. A roar escaped whatever they hit, and the force of their collision sent them to the ground. Riley, startled by the hard impact, let go of Joanne, hitting the grassy ground.

“Riley!? Jetpack Girl!?” It was Fatima’s cry that made Riley stand, just in time for her to look down and see the Carnival Master on the ground, completely stunned. The other two accomplices with him looked just as shocked at the sudden encounter, and Riley quickly took out her knife, pointing it at both of them. Just a few paces to the right of the villains, Fatima laid on an angular altar. That was the best way Riley could describe it, just as she used her free hand to help Jetpack Girl get to her feet.

“I have a weapon! Don’t come closer!” Riley called.

The monsters didn’t listen, running at them. Riley bolted out of the way, and same with Jetpack Girl. Thankfully for them, that was when the Carnival Master _just _got up, resulting in the two monsters running into the Carnival Master and all three of them hitting the ground.

“Come on!” Jetpack Girl got to Fatima first, helped her off the altar. “We gotta go!”

Riley did nothing but run after Jetpack Girl and their new friend as the Carnival Master spouted curses at them.

* * *

Vincent swore as a third bullet hit the head of the statue he was hiding behind. The bad news was, Arthur had a gun.

Even worse? It didn’t seem like it was running out of ammo yet. Arthur managed to keep his distance from the two while shooting, and at this point he’d cornered them both behind a few statues. Said statues were the only things keeping _them _from getting shot, but Vincent knew they wouldn’t hold up for long.

“Vincent!?” Vincent looked to his left, saw Mortimer hiding behind a different statue, one that already lost its head a long while ago. “What do we do?”

“I can distract him.” Vincent tried to whisper back, hoping Mortimer could hear him. “You go around and stab him or something.”

Mortimer nodded, starting to move around the statue, trying to stay out of Arthur’s sight. Vincent, meanwhile, came out from behind his statue, facing Arthur as he swung at him with the crowbar. Arthur dodged, shooting at him, but the bullet whizzed past Vincent’s head and hit a statue behind him. Vincent swung again, but Arthur grabbed the crowbar with his free hand, wrenching it out of his grip.

The crowbar clattered to the ground, after Arthur dropped it. Vincent backed up as Arthur pointed his gun at his chest. The former butler was about to speak, looking him in the eye, before a blunt ‘thwack’ resounded behind him, followed by a sword’s blade sticking out of Arthur’s chest from behind. Arthur stared down at the new wound, just before the blade pulled out.

Mortimer stood just behind Arthur as the man fell to his knees, just before he whacked the butler in the head with the blunt handle of the sword a second time. Arthur fell to the ground, completely out.

Vincent and Mortimer stared down at the newly-made (though temporary) corpse, before Vincent used his free hand to grab Mortimer by the collar and pull him in for a kiss.

Mortimer almost burst into complete laughter as he pulled back to breathe, Vincent moving to pick up the crowbar on the ground. “That was _awesome.”_

“Very.” The former madman couldn’t help but grin back at him, before he noticed Mortimer wince, looking down at Arthur.

“Andddd I think we gotta go.”

“What?”

Cue Mortimer grabbing Vincent by the arm, dragging him off. “We gotta go! Can’t make out for long in Purgatory!”

Vincent did take one more look at Arthur, realizing that the stab wound was fixing itself. Like the Collector, Arthur probably couldn’t die in here. Best to take the time and run off while he was recovering, right?

Besides, Vincent figured, once he and Mortimer got out of Purgatory, they were _definitely _going to kiss more then.


	26. Of Spheres And Getting Out Of Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party gets the remaining emblems, grabs a sphere and tries to get out of here!
> 
> Bad news: Something may just go terribly wrong with that plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I hope you all enjoy reading this new chapter!

Alison was glad that Fatima, Jetpack Girl and Riley were back with the rest of the party. Mortimer and Vincent didn’t take long to join them afterwards, with Vincent citing that they managed to temporarily subdue Arthur for the time being. That was good, because they still had three emblems to go!

_“The next emblem resides where wishes are given.” _

Alison heard Fatima take a deep breath. “Back to the genie we go.”

For a moment, the vampire princess wondered if he was even still in the chamber where he was. Perhaps he left, after being freed from Schehezerade’s control. She wouldn’t blame him for leaving, given all that happened while captive.

Once they reached the chamber, it was obvious that he was gone. The task to get the emblem was simple; just connect golden rope to create a story In order. Thanks to everyone reading the pieces aloud, they soon got what they needed. Two emblems left.

The next one was also easy to figure out, as _“X marks the spot.”_

They were right in assuming it was associated with pirates, but the weird part was, this X was in the Egyptian exhibit. After getting past one of the clowns, they got into said exhibit, found red spot like the one on the map. Bretman was quick to figure out that if one stood on it, it made an X out of the X on the ground, and light hitting it. They head over to the X is, and right there was something underwater. Joey reached in, only to find the sixth emblem.

* * *

The last clue went like this: _“The last and final emblem, lies beneath the mouth of a once-great beast.” _

How long were they running, now? Calliope couldn’t tell. However, they could tell that they had to go to the area with the dinosaur statues. It didn’t take long to find a note that said the following: _“Feel the rhythm of the dinosaurs. Play the perfect rhythm 4 times to reveal the final emblem.” _Beneath the note were seven squares with the following colours: Red, yellow, yellow, blue, yellow, purple and purple.

“I found drums!” Mortimer pointed towards three drums. Each of them were different colours; red, blue and yellow.

“There’s no purple, though.” Fatima noted.

“Red and blue make purple.” Calliope quickly pointed out. “We can play the red and blue drums at the same time.”

“And we have to repeat this pattern four times!” Alison reminded the party. “Don’t forget.”

Vincent and Jetpack Girl both decided to back out of this one, as neither of them were musicians here. Mortimer decided to give it a shot, as well as Janet and Alison, and it didn’t take long to find the last emblem.

With that emblem was a note, that Joey read: _“Excalibur calls you. Place the emblems around it, and read the words of the spell.”_

They were close, Calliope realized. Close to going home and ending this crazy night. She looked forward to the relief that ending would bring with it.

* * *

As the group headed out to find Excalibur, Janet noticed something.

“Is it just me,” She started, “Or is it way too quiet out here?”

_What if it’s a trap?_ Or an ambush in waiting, something like that? She thought back to when she died, and she shuddered, blocking out the memory.

“I found torches!” Tim called from up ahead, and the rest of the group went over to see the torches and a note. _“Put torches in a circle, with the crimson sand in the middle to lure in the monsters to complete the spell…?”_

“Wait.” Joey looked around. “Where_ is_ the Carnival Master and everyone, anyway?”

Calliope groaned, shaking her head. “They’re with Excalibur, aren’t they?”

Janet’s throat closed up as she saw Justine’s face fell at that. “Could be.”

“That is the last item we need.” Vincent noted. He shook his head, before looking ahead. “And if they’re over there….”

“Wait.” Joey suddenly spoke up. “What if we create the trap now, and then all of us lure the Carnival Master and everyone over here? It could work.”

Everyone else could only exchange looks and shrug, muttering words of “Why not?” and “Let’s do this!”

Janet had no idea how this could go. What if the monsters just up and captured all of them?

However, everyone was agreeing with this crazy plan, so they might as well go with it.

* * *

Surprisingly, this very crazy plan _worked._

All the monsters were complete idiots, followed them _straight into the trap_, and got trapped who-knows-where in this museum.

Excalibur was ripe for the taking, emblems were placed, and blood they found from earlier was poured on it to gain the Sword Of All Legends.

Of course, it wasn’t entirely easy to get the chant right (SOMEONE kept messing it up every time), but they did get it right after twenty tries. Joey decided to take matters into his own hands, taking the Sword, and everyone went to go confront the Collector, to see what was going on.

Vincent couldn’t believe that this entire time, while everyone was trying to grab the emblems and get Excalibur, the Sorceress and Collector fighting each other was still going on. He remembered how he tried fighting the Carnival Master and the Strongman back in Everlock. Even back then, the fights didn’t go on for so long. Both the Sorceress and Collector must be rather powerful if they could keep up such stamina for so long.

However, as the party approached, it was clear that the Sorceress was losing, and fast. The strain of her powers wasn’t enough to stop the Collector from knocking her to the ground, the staff flying out of her hands. The Sorceress hit the ground, gasping, but the Collector used the sharp end of her spear to stab her in the back. Blood spurted from the Sorceress’ lips as she groaned in pain, before her body collapsed entirely.

The Collector’s echoing laughted made Vincent shudder. But then it stopped, a horrified gasp escaping her.

“The Sword Of All Legends!? Impossible, it _can’t—”_

Joey didn’t wait for her to finish her monologue of agony, slamming the Sword Of All Legends into the ground. The ground shook, rippling upon impact, and it made the Collector stumble. Before she could recover, Joey ran at her, stabbing her in the heart. The blade went straight through her chest and through her back, up until the hilt, and as he pulled the sword back, the gaping wound began to solidify…and turn grey.

Within moments, the Collector was nothing but a stone statue, lifeless.

“Ohmygod.” Joey stared at her, and then snatched the last key to the vault from her neck, holding it up for everyone to see. “I got it! I got the last key!”

The rest of the party burst into cheers, and no one hesitated to run for the Lounge. Vincent tried to count how many minutes they had left before sunrise, and it wasn’t long.

They _had_ to hurry and get the Cosmic Sphere, and get out of here! This was it!

_We’ll be free. _He realized. _We’re going home!_

* * *

Janet knew there was one thing left to do, other than getting said sphere. She went back to the room where the jar of souls was. She just had this feeling that the Collector no longer being around might help it open. After all, it was the Collector that got those souls in there, right?

As she approached the jar of souls, it suddenly opened by itself. Wisps of green mist floated out, as well as the faces of the deceased. She watched the faces float in the air, before slowly vanishing, one by one. Off into some afterlife, or somewhere better than this place, she hoped.

“…Rest in peace,” She whispered, before leaving to rejoin the others.

* * *

Alison watched as the vault opened after Joey put in the last key, revealing what could only be the Cosmic Sphere, given its spherical appearance, and a large, odd-looking box with a skull on it. Was it a chest? Or…

Either way, she sensed a certain darkness from it. Joey reached a hand towards it, but she batted it away.

“Come on,” She managed, as he looked towards her. “We need to go. Now.”

Joey looked reluctant, but he did go with her. Alison just hoped that Joey’s reluctance wouldn’t sway him to go back for the box, or else…

* * *

Everyone rushed outside the museum’s building again, before Bretman took the Sphere. The sphere glowed, opening a portal to the living world, and all the guests immediately rushed through. The Helpers also ran through, just in time to see the relieved and gasping faces of Ryu, Dylan, Matpat, Nikita and Jael.

“You guys!”

“Nikita!?”

“Matpat?”

“WE’RE ALIVE!”

As the guests started cheering, Mortimer looked around, checking to make sure absolutely made it through as he did a head-count. Matt Haag, Lele Pons, DeStorm Power, Timothy DeLaGhetto, Gabbie Hanna, Justine Ezarik, Tana Mongeau, Alex Wassabi, Bretman Rock, all of Mortimer’s fellow Helpers plus his mom, Alison and Fatima were here…

Wait. _Where was Joey?_

He immediately looked towards the portal, realizing that Joey hadn’t stepped through.

“Joey?” Mortimer called. “Come on, get over here!”

Joey didn’t answer. As the rest of the group turned to see Joey stare back at them through the portal. An odd smile (or smirk) came to his face, before he suddenly turned on his heel and went running back towards the museum building.

“Joey!?”

“Joey!”

“What the hell!? GET BACK HERE!”

Several of the guests (particularly Bretman, Gabbie, DeStorm and even Justine) started heading back towards the portal, but Calliope beat them to it, rushing back in.

“Jael! Ryu!” Calliope yelled. “Keep the portal open! I’m going after Joey! Rest of you, stay out here!”

“But—” Jetpack Girl started, but Calliope shook her head.

“Stay back!” She yelled, before she ran after Joey. Mortimer was half-tempted to run in after Calliope, but instead he focused on trying to restrain DeStorm and Gabbie from charging straight back into the Museum of the Dead (and damn, it was _hard_).

Two beams of gold light suddenly shot into the portal, in an attempt to keep it open. Mortimer turned his head to see that the sources were none other than Jael and Ryu, the golden light coming straight from their mouths (and Mortimer, in all honesty, had no idea how they did that).

He watched Calliope go deeper into the Museum to find Joey. He just hoped both of them made it out safe.


	27. Pandora's Box

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Calliope tries to find Joey, but she might be too late for what happens next. Jael learns about her sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone that's read, commented, kudos'd, bookmarked, and supported this fic so far! This fic hit over a 1000 views recently, and I'm grateful for all the love and support that you readers gave to it!
> 
> Next chapter will be the last one (coming this Friday!), so I hope you enjoy reading this one and the last one!

Tracking Joey was not easy. The guy was fast runner as is, but the fact that he wasn’t answering her didn’t help. However, she did track him all the way back to the vault, where the Cosmic Sphere once was, and found Joey standing in front of the strange box. She’d noticed it earlier, when the group grabbed the Cosmic Sphere, but given how she saw Alison half-drag Joey away from it, she doubted it was good.

“Joey?” Calliope called.

Joey didn’t answer. He still remained standing in front of the box, before reaching a hand towards it. She didn’t know what this box was, but she had a feeling if the Collector had it here, it wasn’t good, and—

“Joey!” Calliope called out, but Joey wasn’t listening. “Joey, _don’t open it!”_

Joey opened it.

Dark mist came out, turning thick as it surrounded him. A choked scream escaped the Savant as it surrounded him, and Calliope could do nothing but watch as it enveloped him completely, before dragging him into the box. The box slammed shut, and the symbol on it glowed a deep red before fading completely.

Joey Graceffa was locked in the box.

And Calliope had no clue whether she could get him out.

She knew she couldn’t just leave him in there. She had to get herself, and him, out of here.

So, she did the best thing she could think of: Grab the box and run.

* * *

The box was surprisingly light, despite it being such a bulky box, but she could hear little voices whisper her name. She shook her head, continuing to move out of the museum building, and towards the portal where she saw golden light go through.

She was almost there. Almost out. Almost—

And that was she tripped and fell, dropping the box as she clutched her left arm. She felt something warm, there, and she knew even right before examining her arm, that there was blood.

Someone shot her.

Looking up, she saw Arthur, and she glared at him. “You.”

_Did he escape the trap?_ She didn’t remember seeing him with all the other monsters that chased her, her friends or the guests through the night.

“It’s me.” Arthur chuckled, keeping the gun pointed at her. “So close, yet so far. Any last words?”

Despite the stinging pain in her arm, she picked up the box again, holding it in front of her as she kept her gaze on him. “Go to hell, Arthur.” She spat. “You need this box, don’t you? What if just destroyed it?”

She saw him raise a brow. “You are very aware of what this is, correct?”

“Pandora’s Box. The thing that carries all evil in the world.” Calliope kept it close to her. “You shoot me, I destroy this box.”

“Impossible.”

“Really?” She looked down at the box, then up at him. The portal was only a few feet behind her. If she turned and threw it fast enough, maybe…

“Don’t you dare.” Arthur hissed, and Calliope smiled.

“Then come and get it!”

Turning on her heel, she threw herself at the ground, but used the momentum to throw the box straight through the Portal. Arthur let out a yell, half-running after it, but Callioped used that chance to trip him. Arthur couldn’t stop himself from going into the portal, along with the box, and she quickly got up to run after both the box and him.

She could only hope that everyone else was ready to subdue Arthur on the other side.

* * *

“Where’s Calliope?” It was Matpat asking, and Riley shivered as she looked towards him, holding onto Jetpack Girl tightly with one arm around her waist. Nikita, Jael and Ryu were giving all the new survivors blankets, as it was a cold night, and Dylan passed around small rations of bread and water to everyone to eat.

Riley hesitated, looking towards the still-open portal, and then towards Matpat. “She went after Joey. She and him are still in there.”

Before anyone could speak, a box came out of the portal, hitting the ground, but same with Arthur. Ryu quickly rushed at Arthur, kicking the gun out of his hands before pointing one of the various sharp daggers he had at him. “Don’t move!”

Arthur totally ignored him, trying to get to the box, but Ryu tackled him down. Both men wrestled and grappled with each other, but it was too obvious that Ryu was the clear victor, quickly binding Arthur’s wrists behind his back as he forced him to stand.

“That box.” Jael rushed towards the box, picking it up with a frown. “I know of this…it’s…”

That was when Calliope came rushing through, only seconds before the portal closed completely.

“Where’s Joey?” Nikita was the first to speak up about the obvious lack of Savant in sight. “What happened?”

Calliope caught her breath as she looked up at Nikita, and Riley could see the worry in her face. “He’s..”

“He’s in the box, isn’t he.” It was Jael that spoke, and Riley turned to see her tremble. “He’s in here.”

Riley knew what it was like to be trapped in something. Hell, she was in a glass case for a century! But Joey? Stuck in that box too small to even fit him? _How…?_

“So, it has begun.” The group turned to see Arthur, still currently restrained by Ryu. The former butler looked almost estatic upon hearing the news. “There’s no going back for him. Not after he’s sealed in Pandora’s Box.”

Jael marched up right to him, after shoving the box into Dylan’s hands, before grabbing the butler by the collar. “What the hell do you know about it? Tell me!”

His smile turned cold. “Know that it’ll starts the beginning of your doom. The Society and _the world_ will fall, all because of what Joey has done.”

Jael stared right at him, jaw clenched, before punching him in the jaw. Arthur had no chance to dodge, still restrained by Ryu, and he slumped, going unconscious at once. Several of the guests, as well as Matpat and Nikita, let out their own cries of shock or variations of “What the hell!?” but Jael could only shake her head as she looked towards the group.

“We’ll have to find out more about Joey later, it seems.” She managed.

“But,” Nikita’s jaw almost dropped, “What do we do?”

Jael shook her head. “I don’t know. But we can’t open it. Not until we find out it’s safe to do so, unless more people get hurt.”

“Um,” Matpat interjected, “He called that box _Pandora’s Box,_ right? In Greek Mythology, that’s supposed to contain all the evils of the world. If Joey’s in there…” His voice trailed off, and he swallowed, not finishing his sentence.

Calliope made a face at that. “Best that we don’t open it for now.” She managed. “Even if we want to free Joey, extracting him from the box right now might expose any other evils trapped in there to the rest of the world and to us.”

At least everyone was out of Purgatory, Riley tried to reassure herself. And the Sorceress is definitely gone.

_But what do we do? What now?_

* * *

Jael, Ryu and the other Helpers quickly helped the guests set up camp for the night, getting them food to eat and water to drink, hoping to send them back to their homes after tonight, or in a few days from now. They sent the still-unconscious-Arthur to Society Headquarters, so there was no way he’d be escaping, as well as sending Pandora’s box to headquarters as well, to lock it away somewhere. They’d have to make a cover story about where the previously-dead guests were, of course, but Jael was sure the Society Against Evil would figure something out. They always did. Better that than the truth, after all.

“Jael?”

Jael looked towards Calliope, just in time for her friend to pull her aside. “Yes, Calliope?”

She saw her swallow. “We saw your sister Cassidy, while we were in Purgatory.”

Jael went still. She hadn’t heard that name in years.

“Cassidy…?” The name almost completely died on her lips, and then she went to grab Calliope’s shoulders, looking her in the eye. “Was she trapped by the Collector? What happened to her? I assumed she was dead, when she never returned, but…”

She had so many questions. Countless questions, about her sister. She still remembered the last day she ever saw her. The hours passed as she hoped she would come back. The dawning realization, after days of waiting, that she had no choice but to report Cassidy missing, or dead, but went with ‘missing’ because maybe she still had a chance of getting out. But…

“She’s dead, but…before that,” Calliope knew this wasn’t easy to break, but she had to, “She got corrupted by the Collector. I don’t know the full details, but as far as I figured out…she got turned into a Gorgon by the Collector. It could be due to Pandora’s Box being used on her, or the Collector’s own magic, but by the time I saw her down there, she was a full Gorgon. She wasn’t human anymore, temporarily even turned Mortimer to stone, and…”

She saw Calliope hesitate. “What?” She half-spat. “What is it? What happened?”

“We had no choice but to kill her. I’m sorry.”

_No choice…dead…_

The words passed through Calliope too fast, but it felt like a punch in the gut. All this time, she had thoughts of her sister in the back of her mind. And now Jael had to live with knowing her sister would never come back.

It took all her willpower to make sure she didn’t burst out crying in front of the guests, for the rest of the night.


	28. A Decision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Helpers return the newly-alive guests, try to recover from the previous events, and theorize about Joey and the evil. Vincent makes an important decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS THE END OF "WICKED GAME!" I can't believe we made it here!
> 
> As of posting this chapter, this fic has reached over 1100 views! Thank you so much for the love and support, and I hope you enjoy reading this last chapter!

The newly-alive guests (Tana, Gabbie, Tim, Justine, DeStorm, Alex, Lele and Matt) were taken into the Society Against Evil’s hands, and carefully returned home. Their families and friends rejoiced at their return, and even put together a makeshift party to welcome them all back. However, it was clear that all the new survivors were recommended to free therapy sessions provided by the Society Against Evil (just in case any of them had trauma over all that they went through), and it was also clear that the new survivors were not allowed to publicly talk about what happened during their time in Purgatory.

Instead, public word goes out that said newly-alive guests had their deaths faked by evildoers that intended to keep them as slaves for trafficking, but the group collectively escaped, hiding in a shelter in some other country (Jetpack Girl didn’t remember which one they came up with) and were soon found by the Society Against Evil, hence why they were cut off from the rest of the world for so long.

Matpat and Nikita also went home to see their families and friends, and Bretman did the same (though not after asking any of the Helpers to keep in touch with them and let them know how Joey was doing or when Joey got out of that box).

Jetpack Girl was just glad the whole group was alive again. She and the other Helpers (as well as newfound friends in Janet, Alison and Fatima) all returned to the Victorian Mansion. Because the mansion was so huge, it wasn’t difficult to find rooms for all three of them to sleep in and recover from the whole ordeal.

Everyone didn’t do much for the next few days after that. They were all busy either getting rest from the crazy night, making sure they were physically recovering or just keeping their minds off all that happened. As Jetpack Girl laid on the couch and stared up at the ceiling in the parlour, a sigh escaped her.

“You okay?”

She turned her head to see Riley approach. Jetpack Girl moved to sit up on the couch so Riley could sit beside her, before responding.

“I’m okay. Just tired. Exhausted. Glad we’re alive. All that.” She took a deep breath, looking up at Riley as she sat down beside her. “It’s hard to believe all that happened, you know?”

“You mean, almost dying again?” Riley frowned a little.

“Well, yeah, but also Joey and what happened with him. Makes me wonder why he ran back for Pandora’s box.”

Riley leaned back against the couch. “I think it’s my fault.”

“What?” Jetpack Girl stared at her. “Why?”

“Because it’s because of the ‘evil within Joey’ that the Sorceress had the chance to take over the world in the first place, prior to her death. If Joey never came here and got killed, we wouldn’t have the Everlock situation involving him, and if there really is an evil still in him, that’s probably what attracted him to the box he got stuck in.” Riley’s lip trembled at that, and she shook her head. “At least, that’s what I’ve pieced together. I haven’t told Jael, Calliope or Ryu about that theory yet, but I think that’s possible.”

“But how did the evil get in him, though?” Jetpack Girl tilted her head to the side, trying to think of it. “Everlock still could’ve happened if Joey didn’t die. He just…you know, wouldn’t be trying to come back to life and would have a heartbeat like everyone else at the time.”

“Fair. What if it’s that mansion Vincent was stuck in?”

The mansion? Jetpack Girl knew Vincent was previously stuck in there, but Arthur was also there, right? “The mansion? I mean, I know Vincent told us once it was evil and all that, but do you think all the evil of the mansion got in Joey?”

“It could start from there. But I don’t know _how much_ Vincent knows about it.” Riley admitted, looking towards her again. “Sure, it did him and everyone trapped in there harm, but I think…maybe he knows more than he thinks. Or maybe Arthur might know answers.”

“Ugh.” Jetpack Girl made a face at that, scrunching up her nose. “I don’t want to deal with that guy for a while.”

“Neither do I. But if he knows something about the evil that’s in Joey, we might have a chance to save him.” Riley looked her in the eye. “The question is, do we want to take it?”

Jetpack Girl recognized the burning in Riley’s eye—the same passion she had when she expressed anger against the Sorceress, the determination to see things through. And she also doubted there was no way Riley wanted to back out of saving Joey if she could.

But the question still hung in the air between them. Could they really take a risk like that?

* * *

“So that’s what happened in Everlock?”

“Yeah.” Mortimer took a deep breath, looked up at his mom. “That’s what happened.”

He knew his mom would be curious about all of Everlock since her death. After all, she was its mayor, and she deserved to know.

Janet sighed, grasping her son’s hand as they both sat in the kitchen of the mansion, at the table so frequently shared by everyone (and honestly, the table was too small to fit all of them at that point but they could make do for now). Everlock, gone. A soft laugh escaped her, hoarse as she shook her head.

“I’m glad to hear that those that survived moved on to new lives. Probably best that they never remembered what happened. They deserve good lives, even if all of us had our…wrongdoings.” She looked up at him, taking a deep breath. “If I’d survived—I don’t know what I would have done. I’m glad you saved what you could, okay?”

She watched him nod. “You gonna be okay?”

“In time.” She managed, swallowing. “It’s going to take time.”

“Yeah.” She saw Mortimer crack a smile. “I think I get that.”

* * *

Vincent paced around the house, quiet, until he made it to the gardens. He knew Dylan was off getting to know Alison and Fatima somewhere else in the house, and Ryu was probably consoling Jael somewhere, so he knew it was best not to disturb them. He also knew Jetpack Girl and Riley were spending time with each other, and Mortimer was helping his mom get up to speed, so it was best to leave them alone as well.

So, here he was. In the garden. Alone.

At least he was in a safe place, he reasoned. He was familiar with people here. It was daylight. He was surrounded by blooming flowers, and it was nice to be around them. It was better than the nightmares of Everlock and the Museum of the Dead. He figured he should probably ask about going to therapy sometime soon, but he wanted to let his mind settle down.

And yet, he could not simply settle. The thought of Joey being stuck in that box felt off to him. He wondered what made him go back there, and into the box in the first place…

_“Know that it’ll starts the beginning of your doom. The Society and the world will fall, all because of what Joey has done.”_

Arthur said that, right? Because of what Joey has done—did Arthur mean by just Joey getting into the box? Or was it something that he did that predated that event? There were too many questions, and as much as Vincent_ loathed _Arthur, he knew he had to find out answers from somewhere.

Right now, however?

Right now he just wanted—

“Vincent?”

He turned, just in time to see Calliope sit down beside him. She had stitches and bandages wrapped around the upper arm, where Arthur previously shot her, but her skin did have a healthier glow that it did from a few days ago, so that was an improvement. Her eyes filled with worry. “Are you okay?”

“Actually…” He started, then paused, swallowing. He had a lot to talk about. He still wondered how Mortimer felt after dying the first time, what to do about Joey and Arthur, of course, and how everyone else was. And he doubted the events of the Museum of the Dead would stop haunting him too soon.

But…he had to do this.

“Calliope,” He finally managed, “I think I have to save him.”

He saw her raise a brow. “You mean Joey, don’t you?”

“Yes.” _He saved me once. Maybe this is my time to save him for sure._ “He’s not going to find peace. Not with the evil. Not with him being stuck in a _box_ of evil, either.”

Her expression didn’t change, and he looked her in the eye. “I know that it won’t be easy. And I know you would probably rather not have me, Mortimer, Janet, Jetpack Girl, Riley, Fatima, Alison or even Dylan involved. But I don’t think the Society can just do it alone, either.”

She went silent. He did, too, watching her.

And then she nodded once.

“To be honest,” She managed, “You might be right about that. And I think with whatever comes next…our problems with this evil might still be far from over.”

As far as Vincent knew, with whatever came next, they would all do this together. Save Joey, probably the whole world as they knew it, and get rid of the evil. How soon it would happen was something they couldn’t predict, but they could at least try to be prepared.

As long as there were people to save, Vincent knew this: He and everyone else would keep fighting. No matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone that's read "Wicked Game" as well as the rest of the fics in this continuum! I am grateful and blessed for all the bookmarks, comments, kudos, and other forms of support you've given so far! I also am thankful that this series has made it onto the FanficRecs page of the Escape The Night TV Tropes page as well. This was an honour that I never thought I would get as a fanfic writer, so to see my series acknowledged this way is something I'm incredibly grateful for on top of all the rest of the support. 
> 
> I admit I'm not sure how soon I'll write another fic for the continuum, as it'll depend on 1. how many other writing projects I have at the time and 2. if Escape The Night has a Season 5 and onwards because that may influence the flow of this series, but if any oneshots/multichapter fics come up in the future, I hope you enjoy reading those as much as you enjoyed this one and the rest of the series so far! 
> 
> Meanwhile: As of completing this fic, I'm still currently updating a The Last Story/Rune Factory 4 fanfic called "The Next Chapters!" If you're into something a lot more light-hearted, with significantly less angst and death (but especially death), you may enjoy reading it. 
> 
> Thank you again, and hope to see you all again in the next fic!


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